Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Prathun, Feb 5, 2014.

  1. Nuada New Member

    A refund of AA would benefit me as I am in my mid 80's on many characters.
  2. Solaar Esten Journeyman

    I'm sort of mixed on this. I do like it, though I wished it would have taken place 6 months ago, when I first came back to the game after a 5 year hiatus. My favorite aspect of the game is raiding, and my toons were no where near able to do this. So between a lot of time and playing I have 3 toons on 3 accounts near 90 and 4k aa each. Would have save me 6 months of gold on 3 accounts and all the plat I spent on gear through the levels, had this change been implemented 6 months ago, or I had delayed my return by 6 months.. But we live and learn!
  3. Pickleweasle Journeyman

    Hit the nail on on the head when you said completely different crowd...The old days are over guys. The very same players that are screaming about helping new players and returning players are the very same ones that have no problem buying the latest expansion...flying through levels, aa's, and progression/raids....and then screaming how lousy it was for you. I am convinced that there is no way to please the old school crowd one single bit. There is no way in hell that this game would attract the player base to keep this game going any further with the subs of just the old-schoolers. In order to keep the game going for everyone and attract new players the game needs to be able to compete in the market for those players. Face it....the only thing keeping the game alive are all the newer players. We are dinosaurs guys....relish the experiences you have had, but do not force them on other people.

    Cars used to run on steam. When someone figured out how to refine crude oil someone eventually found a use for it by designing the internal combustion engine. Automobile manufacturers were swayed in the direction of gasoline engines even though they were much more expensive to manufacture and were prone to many dangers and problems. The gas engine offered more power in a smaller package. So what happened to the last steam engine driven car manufacturer? They went out of business because they could not compete with other companies. The fantasy of what EQ used to be for all of us is in fact the steam engine and the changes have been hard through the years....but when other companies are offering gas engines....so must sony...or everquest dies. (I thing this steam engine analogy will get a chuckle out of the coding crew, lol)

    The old days are over...embrace change or be left behind...personally I don't want to see ya go..=-).
  4. Phoebes Journeyman

    As an aside I've been playing EQ1 since launch. Often boxed but never swarmed and never played a Ranger, 'Zerker or Rogue. Got a Magician but never pet tanked or kited.

    Coincidentally last month I finally got around to camping a Bow of the Destroyer and leveling a Ranger to 82 to try out HS at C2. Yesterday for the first time ever I tried using HS and at the same time to power level a second character on another account.

    Here's what I found - the XP is fast. Not blindingly fast though I guess it would have been back in the day. In fact it's a LOT faster to PL just using a regular (boxed) party set up (My lvl 100 Warrior, Bard, Shaman crew with tank and Melee Mercs). HS is also madly boring after a while when used to PL.

    Now I was doing one mob at a time. Half way through I dc'ed and came back to an SK pulling the whole of C2 in one go and killing it all in less than a minute. That is of course mad unbalanced.


    But it confirmed to me what I believed already - the problem is not and has not been HS/Decap/Anatomy. The problem is swarming. What has confounded the issue over the last 12 months has been the decision to make what was the 'premier' XP and leveling zone near end game (Grounds) into a hot zone.


    In summary I think you devs are doing us players a disservice by dealing with both at the same time. You are taking the opportunity while fixing swarming to remove HS/Decap/Anatomy because you don't like the design principle not because it is broken.
    Petts likes this.
  5. Baamboozle New Member

    Grouping with real players is more enjoyable to me than soloing. Grouping was never a problem in the early years of EQ. A lot more people were playing and it was never an issue finding a group.  As a server population declined this started to become more of an issue. That is one reason mercs were added in my option. I am not saying we can't group but it is just harder to do and and to penalize for not grouping or rewarding more for grouping does more harm in my option. Players have real lives and it is not always possible to commit to regular game play. Just when you find a great group of players to hang out with, RL creeps in and before you know it you have out leveled those you built a strong bond with.

    Personally I have always enjoyed grouping with 6 close friends than in a large raid party. I have belong to small and large guilds but still prefer a group of 6 players that can crawl through a dungeon together. To me it just seems more personal and the bonds or friendships are much closer. Sure you can have this in a guild as well but in large groups of people you always have clicks that form that can degrade game play. If I could find 6 players that could commit to the same time each day, I would be a very happy person. The reality of this is very slim and I understand why.
  6. Dexar Elder

    Hmm. Maybe when a thread about massive sweeping changes generates thousands of responses practically over night, it's possible that I missed a developer's reply that clearly and concisely answers my post. Please instead of just saying my posted questions have already been answered, would you mind at least pointing me to this alleged answer?

    I hope you don't mean the vague non-answer you quoted that said:

    "The swarming changes are something we've been thinking about for a long time."

    That doesn't answer my questions at all! Maybe I should make my questions more pointed.

    1. Were Headshot and Assassinate nerfs intended to relieve the server load issues? Yes or No please.

    2. If No then what is the reason? (BTW, we've been thinking about it for a long time is not a reason.)


    I have already commented on this statement in depth and certainly didn't miss you saying it. I really don't want to go much further on this except to say that this attitude saddens me. I understand your position and it is politically opposite to mine. I accept that. The last thing I wanted to do is turn this into a political discussion.

    I just feel like as human beings, we are responsible for our own actions. Headshot, Assassinate, Decapitate, Mortal Coil, Beams, Fading Memories, Feign Death and various other abilities can be used in legitimate ways or they can be used to cause problems. The same is true in the real world where cars, guns, knives, and beer are used and also sometimes abused.

    Unfortunately there are many these days that truly believe people can't help bad behavior and nothing is their fault. "Mortal Coil made me do it." makes as much sense as "The gun made me do it."

    Dexar.

    P.S. Yes, after reading over my post I do realize that I made this a little political after saying I didn't want to. But hey, it wasn't my fault, the thread made me do it.
    Funno and MacHammer like this.
  7. Nuada New Member

    Raise the bonus to 8k, that would eliminate all the complaints about loosing their 4k bonus.
  8. Wildery New Member

    if ya wanna make changes to the game, fix leveling spell skills and such. like abjuration, evocation, and those, takes forever to skill up, always falls behind. i think thats a change everyone would welcome.
  9. Sheex Goodnight, Springton. There will be no encores.

    Why even have AA as a form of progression if 80-90% of them will be either auto granted or earned at an immensely accelerated pace?

    The goal of the auto grant appears to be to catch people up to the basic levels of functionality, not max them out for even less effort. When they run out of things to do and stop logging in its the same net result to SOE as someone who couldn't overcome the intro "barrier"...aka a lost customer.

    Terrible idea. They want to make it easier to get into the journey, not to finish it faster.
    Bearforce likes this.
  10. Izcurly Augur

    Of course eliminating the low-AA bonus would eliminate all complaints about the value of autogranting. Once upon a time people raised exactly this kind of storm about adding the low-AA bonus in the first place.
  11. Sparkes Autumblaze New Member

    That is the thing that makes me so annoyed. The complaints are the same that have always occur when a change happens. Piestro was correct when he stated that no matter what they do they will not please everyone. This is true no matter what it is or what you do. I think this idea was great step forward, I am coming back to the game because of this change. I left years ago and I have 50 AA's. I know no one anymore that plays and I do not have the time to sit down and work on my levels and AA's that people seem to magically think that everyone has. Its the one thing that has held me back for so long. I play an Enchanter and she has always been my favorite character, and I really wish I could have worked harder in the game but I have had to deal with alot outside the game. I made it to level 61 before I quit years ago, so I am so happy to be able to jump in and work my way up now that I have been given this boost. I am not happy with the idea of Heroic Characters, that to me goes against the spirit of the game. The AA change however does not.
    Jabastis likes this.
  12. Nuada New Member

    I personally would like the option of a refund of AA's when this goes live.
  13. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    If your going to start doing things like that because you just granted the slackers 4 - 7 K AA then I am against it.

    As it is now i can opt out and enjoy the content still as is, dont change it even more and make it not worth doing just because some opted into having AA granted to them.

    DO NOT ruin old content because you give players a lazy route.

    WTB a dislike button
    Velric likes this.
  14. beryon Augur

    What do you consider the difference between the two?
  15. Tarrin Augur

    You want to dislike his post saying he isn't going to do something you don't want him to do?
  16. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    They have just given away 4 - 7 K AA and you want more? Why don't you just go the whole hog and ask for a level 100 char with max AA.

    Some of us actually enjoy the challenge of running through old content, don't ruin their game just because you do not wish to put any effort in.
  17. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    No I want one so I don't have to respond to Pie and the one who suggested it. :p
  18. Melanippe Augur

    Play a metric ton? I suppose if one considers a couple hours a session a "metric ton" that measurement might be accurate. Massive amount of research? They only need to type /ach then look at Hero's Journey. You know, that book they get and the list of needed quest, tasks, etc. that are in the game. They also need to hail some NPC's. You know, the ones with (Quest - Level 10) etc, under their names.
    Funno and Harabakc like this.
  19. Bearforce Lorekeeper

    You don't have to reply to anyone!
  20. Black Soul Elder

    So, no possibility of putting these AA unlocks behind some quests to at least make it interesting? Would be so much better to have them available as rewards instead of just dumping them on us. I'd be very happy to go visit all the old expansions for a couple days each for a little reward here and there.