I wasn't talking about RoF zones, I was talking about CotF which is designed for 3 players and 3 mercs, but most decent players can get away with 2 players and 2 mercs and the content scales with level (95 - 100) I believe, didn't have time to confirm that myself.
RoF stunk in the fact that some missions are still not doable by your average group and the rest have,zero replay value. Instead of helping people out and get stuff done we end up hitting our heads against a wall with roadblocks. Learning curve is one thing, not getting something done because you lack key classes is quite another. And I don't care about how some guy did it with is rogue and a merc and we just don't know how to play. Again, I don't care about that. If CotF is the same EQ won't get my money for much longer.
Has nothing to with raid gear or not. From what i recall on that quest you should be able to avoid the goblins at some of the tents: by some u can do that from a save range, by some u can simply agro them and outkite them while the tent is burned down and then fade over stasis or FD potion. I hope i recall that correct. If not, send me PM, i will go check it out and then tell you. I never tried to charm them.
LoY wasn't marketed as an expansion, it was an experiment at releasing content as adventure packs. It was the only time they did it in EQ however, after that they went back to normal expansions.
Because, unlike raiders, groupers don't like to play in new content? That is kind of arrogant don't you think.
No...because raiders are forced to buy or they cannot do anymore what they did before..play with their guild. A grouper could still convince his mates to use old zones for a while (or team up with those who do), you have no chance doing that as raider, there's a whole guild you are used to involved, not just your group of friends that could talk it over.
This, this and this again and again. There shouldnt be a big difference between groupers and raiders, but there is. Groupers chose for whatever reason not to go for the content, which requires more than the usual group content. Raid content is since a few years just a harder version of the hero mission in which you require more players to accomplish it successfully. The group content is seen from my perspective just the "light" version of what could possibly achieved when doing the "hard" version. Opinions like "raiders dont know about group content" might have some true core, but in fact: raiders just do more than just grinding exp in groups. If you decide not to play the raidcontent because of lack of community and players, time and RL issues and the other 100.000.000 reasons, then live with it, but dont soften the game for everyone just because those cant/wont/must not. When you have finished the group content (Mercenary - Partisan - Hero), which is pretty quickly done after release, then the raid game comes up (past Savior). Like in the last expansions (even when i didnt have raid gear) this can be done by 2 player with 2 mercs within of 1-2 weeks after release. So, then ask yourselves: What now? And we speak here of expansions that had far more content from the start than what CotF will probably have after 6 months. At least we had a few AA and some levels to do in RoF. What i dislike is this obviously "stretching" of the content just to reduce costs for developing the content. Lots of employees have been fired from SOE to squeeze out a few more cent for some. And this is what we get delivered: CotF. 4 zones. 4 raids. cheap design. rest will come. somewhen. If we decide it is worth it, else not. Here is my answer: mmmk. will take a look at it, if it comes. else not. until then, i dont buy.
Heroic Adventures are simply ways to buy merc gear. The currency you get (apparently) can be used to buy merc gear. So farm them for gear up your merc...and maybe some of those caster augs folks are talking about.... The amount of currency you get is pretty large...so the items are going to cost a lot it would seem...shrug. Running hundreds of HAs instead of sitting in a static camp to grind AA...ok...sure...
RoF was released in staggered releases this year and everyone seemed to be mostly OK with it, and you paid up front a year ago for it. Why is it now, when they are doing the same thing with CotF (pay up fron, staggered year release) is everyone in an uproar like this is new and very well known as to the direction EQ expansions will take. Granted, the initial zone releases are fewer than RoF at release, but its the same concept, nothing different that what this last year was. Feel like you don't have anything to do?...guess you shouldn't be complaining and saying you don't want level increases. Level increases provide a lot of reason to buy an expansion and go out there and get exp, to keep up with the jones'. I just don't get all the complaining going on. Its just $40 freaking bucks for a years worth of new content. If $40/yr is a financial burden on you, then you really shouldn't be playing EQ, you should have other priorities to spend your money on. One of the constants you can depend on in life: No matter what, EQ forum ingrates will complain about everything that happens or is done in this game. Blow it way out of proportion and creat percieved drama and dissatisfaction that most of the EQ population does not share. .
I'm glad you feel that you are somehow in the position to tell people what their priorities should be. Maybe people should learn their place and stay in it.
The problem is that NOWHERE does it guarantee you a year's worth of new content. You are paying $40 for what is being released as "CotF". It was made very clear by a dev that $40 for RoF bought you only exactly what was released last November. Everything that came after that was a "free bonus", and it was entirely their gift to you, which they didn't have to give you at all. There has been no change in the marketing model. Even though the devs said on a couple of occassions that they intend to continue releasing more content for free, their words carry no legal weight. There still has been no official statements from SOE about that. In fact, the vast majority of EQ players supposedly don't read these forums, so they wouldn't even know anything about any plans for additional content releases. You are paying $40 for these 4 zones and what's in them, and you are NOT entitled to anything more than that. Does this make the nature of the issue more clear? ETA: Here's the only mention of the additional content in an official statement from SOE: They are discussing it. And if their discussion results in a decision to not give you anything else, or charge extra for it - then that's what you'll get.
Yeah, but they'd have to be pretty dumb to actually go through with this. People would quit in a heartbeat...and it probably would end up being one of (if not) the final nails in the coffin. If it's staggered release and you only have to pay for the first 'content release' and the next ones until the next expansion are free, it's one thing...but if they charge you $40 for as little as CotF is and then say "oh yeah, you have to pay again for the next set of content, too!"...people will not be happy, lol.
They are trying to sit on 2 chairs in their attitude about this. Too little content for $40? -- "Oh, but you know that more is coming, right?" Any and all complaints about the additional releases -- "Oh, but this is free, so be happy you got anything at all."
Yeah, I know. It's kinda ridiculous, but...tbh it doesn't really bother me if they take that attitude so long as the rest of the content meant for the expansion's storyline actually is free (the expansion's...not the overarching storyline like...for example...HoT->VoA->RoF, LDoN->GoD->OoW->SoD and DoDH->PoR->TBS).
From what i have experienced over the last expansions, is that i was done even with 4 tiers pretty quick, to be able to trigger raids and such. If i estimate the time i would need for this tiny thing, then i will pay 1 month for fun of less than 10 days. The content in this expansion/update is not worth to pay 40$ + monthly fee. Especially since returnees get freebies (bags and stuff) and describers are worth less for SOE. I rather spend some plat for kronos and go for the achievements in the old content, and when they decide to release more content, then i will reconsider. I will not accept to carry the risk for SOE as a paying customer. Of course it is comfortable not to carry any risk as a company and judge, depending if you earn enough or not, if you gonna give your customers more of it for "free". I return it back to them and let them try to convince me, but im not paying for the waiting time, especially when there are enough customers out there, who pay my subscription with their cash - god bless kronos
I can only imagine it's some kind of legal issue about what they can and can't say when selling the expansion for $40 knowing they are going to deliver X amount of content later. They had a year to figure that part of it out and apparently made zero progress in being able to explain to their customers that yes, you are paying $40 for 4 zones right now but that we will be including X amount of additional, included content. They treated it like some kind of childish secret during RoF withholding the information about tiers but that expansion had an entry amount of content that could sort of stand on its own. This expansion does not. Say you're doing 2 tiers released in 4 parts with target release dates about 3 months apart. Say how many zones/raids we can expect in each release. Say which release we can expect the additional spells/AA's to become available. Just tell us something, anything to justify giving you $40 right now for 4 zones and a flurry of free nerfs. Otherwise, no thanks.
I don't like the staggered content. Basically, we are just putting a down payment on a yearly premium to our subscription costs. Just up the subscription price to $18 a month and stop calling them expansions, just call them "free" add ons.
Sounds like a good idea, but im not sure how it would fit into the actual sales model: e.g. that they dont want to sell expansions over station cash, cause else nobody would buy they expansion but buy it over the free station cash, not to mention kronos-model. Never the less i believe, this will be the way to go somewhen anyhow.
