The OP doesn't want to group. His play style is solo/molo. Regardless of what you think the leveling system is, you cannot expect to have an easy life if you want to play a game meant for groups of people, by yourself. He doesn't want to box, he doesn't want to group. He wants eq to change the foundation that built the game (grouping) to suit his need. Like i said in my earlier post he should go play diablo 2. He won't have to socialize or talk to anyone but himself, and he can level all he wants. Eq is a social game. Guilds still help people level and spread knowledge. Heck even people you have never met before are willing to help. The foundation of the game should not change because someone wants to be anti-social. Experience is not hard to find if you go looking for it.
tl;dr - He's prolly a f2p account at lvl locked at 95, and doesn't realize he needs to buy crap from the store. meh.. or not. I really don't care..
MMO doesn't mean 'must group'. I'll continue to solo/molo, and group when I need to. EQ is more freeform than other MMOs. Grouping really isn't required at low levels for many character classes. Why, you could spend hours or weeks tradeskilling and selling your wares in the bazaar. No need to adventure all of the time.
In their defense, the group game prior to 85 is nonexistent. Some of us who are vets did our first round through the game in groups way back when. Newer players don't have that same experience. Groups can be few and far between. If there were more players playing, more groups would be formed and I think players like the OP would be more inclined to do so. They'd be used to it and would have a network of friends. That last one is the biggie. Grouping is really needed after 85. But without a network, it blows. You're stuck doing blue cons because yellow and red is simply too hard for you, one other person and two mercs. One thing I want to add to my post earlier is they need to change how we skill up. Anyone who's played a bard or caster knows what I mean. You can put a melody command up and go from 204/300 to 215/300 skill overnight. Thats crazy. And spell casters can't use a melody command to skill up. So while the leveling experience needs to be improved, the skill up rate needs to keep pace with leveling. It was designed to take a while to get to max at 50. Then the max went up when 60 was max level. And it was assumed people would sit at 60. Then 65, then 70 and so on. That's not the case. We're don't sit at each expansion's level range and nor do we have any reason to.
What about practice points? I think they cap those, though. They can't be used for some thigns, like defense skill. I kind of know what you mean, maybe. This is especially true for twinks (read: alts) and for casters when they try a spell they don't use very often and find out the skill is low. The problem is even though you don't use it often you need it to work reliably when you DO use it. I think this can be resolved somewhat with practice points, but I'm not sure to what extent. I remember experiencing this with a bard alt and an enchanter, but in those cases I was low level and it didn't require much time to get the needed skill. All in all, it has never bothered me much. Still, the whole idea of skill gain being based on time alone is boring. I know it's harder to base it on good/bad choices, but it's much more fun that way because gaming is about choices, imho. I would think they'd increase skill gain as they increased normal experience gain. Shouldn't be hard, should it? As far as gear increases are concerned, I think those have to coincide with experience rate increases. Without gear increases coinciding, a player would outlevel their gear too soon, making them upgrade more often in order to gain more. It'd create a situation similar to the skill gain situation: skill increases falling behind normal experience increases. It'd mean grinding lower level monsters to make money to buy new gear. For skills it means grinding a skill in unconventional ways to keep up. I also think utility spells which aren't used often should raise faster. Safe fall is an example of a skill like this. With the current system you have to pretty much grind it unconventionally in order for it to be useful. If you depend on fate alone safe fall will raise but too slowly to be practical. Note: You do experience this with melee classes when you switch to a different (unused) weapon skill.
While we're talking about skill-ups, why is it that crap like Bind Wound and Alc Tol. have gotten skill-cap increases with each level-cap increase, but useful skills like TAUNT are still capped at the same value they were when my toon was level 55? It's mildly insulting as a level 100 tank to mash taunt 8 times and get... nothing. But look! I can bind would for 17 more hp now $$ I'd love to see useful skills get continued, and useless ones left at whatever random cap there was when it was acknowledged that they were useless in modern EQ.
Some skills do level rather quickly. Melees for example get unused weapon skills up rather quickly. It could be a bit swifter but it is markedly much quicker than bard songs. Practice skills work well if you can afford to use them (new players usually cannot). And they only work for one skill as you only get 5 points per level, and most skills go up 5 points per level. Again alot of skills take a while and then speed up and slow down again. This is due to expansions being released and sometimes characters expected to sit at a level range for a while (which would get those skills up.. eventually). But today exping from level to level is more fluid since the level cap is higher. You don't stop at 60 (for a few years) till PoP comes out, sit at 65 till OoW comes out and so on and so on. In addition like you said, the rate of exp went up. The rate of skill ups should also go up. For a new enchanter who just got 85 and started grouping. If they didn't train up Abjuration.. they're in for a rough time.
For the record, I have met and assisted several completely new to EQ players, and the only thing any of them even commented on as issues were the lack of other players in their level ranges and the mental intimidation that the amount of levels, AAs, and content gave them. Once they stopped obessing over the massive AA count, and just played the game they found it wasn't nearly what they feared. Plus when they reached 51 they found AAs went by fairly fast. That was pre-autogrant so now it would be more like when they reach 85 as a subscriber, but the AAs won't fly by as fast.
And I find the idea that something is childish because you didn't like it (though there's no way to be sure that is true, since people can say whatever they want on the internet) to be childish as well. Grow up. Leveling is not the game. Leveling is just a means to an end, and a way for the developers to ensure content stays relevant for a span of time they have in mind. The game starts at the level for which content is being designed, which is not level 70 these days. That is something WoW got right, and something the EQ developers don't seem to have taken seriously. No one is stopping you from leveling slower in WoW if you want to. You can play as many alts as you want, XP as much or as little as you want, etc. But that doesn't mean players getting into he game should be punished because you think that's the way to do it. In the end, it doesn't matter. They just won't get my money.
Hmm never heard that someone losing 3 million subscribers is doing something right. Guess 3 million isn't that big of of a number ? I tried wow again a few months ago and it was only fun for about 2 months. Also the above is so valid to what your suggesting is right about wow because that is when they started losing the 3 million subscribers. And one more thing not sure you ever heard the saying it's not about the destination it's about the journey. Which is what eq kinda goes by if you level in the traditional way.
Its some nostalgic dream or idea that isn't practiced. I mean you see people claim that they'll stop and experience content at each bracket. Heck I've even attempted to do that. Eventually you look at what abilities you get next or spells, or AAs.. and then just start leveling again. There's no productive reason to stop and smell the roses. And neither should there be. The average player isn't going to join a progression guild. The average player is probably going to get PL'd even just a little bit. Even if its as simple as a slightly higher level rogue/ranger instagibbing mobs. Here's an example of the REAL traditional leveling experience: note: its not the only way.. just an example of one of many. 1-10 in Glooming Deep 10-22 in Paludal Caverns 23-26 in Marus Seru 27-35 in Dawnshroud Peaks 36-45 in Burning Wood 46-51 in Acrylia Caverns 52-55 in Bloodfields 56-60 in Grieg's End 61-70 in Plane of Fire/Wall of Slaughter 71-75 in Oceangreen Hills/ or other 75ish zone 76-80 in Loping Plains/Hills of Shade 81-85 in House of Thule 86-90 in Grounds 91-100 in Valley alternate 85-100 in Heroic Adventures. With autogrant AAs this leveling path can get you 1-85 in about a week to two weeks. Getting 85-100 is a bit longer of course. But this is an example of what most people probably do. Many zones are simply not even visited unless they are on the way to a preferred zone. Either because of mob types, running, or simply because the TTK (time to kill) to Exp gain ratio is crappy. TTK is actually a major issue. Look at some of the mobs in say.. Undershore and Corathius Creep. Undershore is 60, but the mobs in Plane of Fire die much quicker and so it is much more profitable to go there despite Undershore being a Hot Zone. In many cases where this happens, the mobs also hit much harder and require careful pulling, as adds will surely mean the death of a molo'er and in some cases the wipe of a small group. At the lower levels, the only classes capable of doing pulling like that are druids/rangers (if outside), clerics, paladins, enchanters, and bards. Necro's, Monks, and SK's can split pull.. most of the time (low level FDs to fall a bit). One might say players simply need to learn to pull. The fact is, they don't learn and go to the paths of least resistance. And why shouldn't they? If solo/molo'ing. They definitely wish to spend more time killing and less time spliting pulls. There needs to be a better leveling experience. Not this 1-99 gauntlet that everyone must climb their way through to earn their place at the top. Its literally a test of patience from 1-100. But what do you get at 100? The ability to play 2-3 times a week for 3-4 hours. That's why at the basic level I suggest to ease the process. First I would make the skills level at a faster rate so with a small bit of effort.. a notch above minimal.. they level at the same rate as the character levels. So that a Bard or mage using a set of spells or songs while leveling will have those skills stay topped off. Where other skills not being used as much will take a small bit of practice to keep up. No more than 10 minutes if they devote that entire time to it. Not this hours of hours where you get 10 skill ups in 8 hours of afk melodying. Next I would wipe out all of the skills and spells prior to the Rk. II era. Basically rewrite the 1-74 spells/abilities to be those level versions of the 75-100 spells. Maybe even have Rk. II versions available as drops, achievement rewards, or even from quests. Every 5 or 10 levels you get a new tier of your spells and abilities, with some unique spells thrown in for utility. Spells like ports, Call of the Hero, ect would remain as they are of course. Starting with Hotzones I would revamp the abilities of named mobs to more closely be related to the mechanics seen in raids. For example the Pit Fiend in Gloomingdeep would have a point blank AOE attack that would do like 45-75 damage to everyone close to him. To avoid the attack, you would hear him emote a roar and that would warn you the attack is has started and you need to move back. The attack goes off and you move back in to continue the encounter. Other names would have other mechanics as it fits for what they are. Of course their loot table will be altered maybe the loot they have on them already will be upgraded to be on par or slightly better than the tier of defiant that drops in the area. This way leveling characters will be rewarded for these new challenges. And have an incentive to seek them out. As hotzones change.. a new set of encounters would be changed as well slowly transforming the game over all. These adjustments wouldn't revert once the hotzones change over. Can still go to a new hotzone to fight those named and get their loot. Other miscellaneous changes would be to adventure merchants. Allow the gear to be upgraded to defiant gear level, or allow players to purchase with those points, defiant gear. This way if you play in LDoNs or DoN dungeons, you will be able to get decent gear. Would be great of completion of the adventure gave a bigger exp bonus as well to make them well worth the time and effort. More bonuses for grouping would be great as well. Basically I would keep how it works now when you have mercs in the group. But for each real player we have in a group, whatever bonus that adds can be doubled. The more players group, even if its 3 warriors just getting together for some better exp bonuses, the better. Reason for this is those players talk while grouping. When they talk to each other, they becomes friends. Friends build networks and networks improve the experience of players over all. Getting players into groups should be a top priority. And it should be done so solo players aren't penalized.
I'll say it again, I don't zoom through content. I went around Butcherblock just a week or so ago with a 40th level character. Stomped a few goblins just for old times sake.
Couldn't it be said that purposely not trying to level up fast is untraditional? Even during EQs early years we'd try to find spots that had better XP.
Never once during classic did I think "I'm gaining exp too quickly here, I should go do something non-productive instead".
Pretty much this. In fact the leveling path I displayed above was VERY close to what I did in the Luclin-PoP era. Difference obviously being 65 was max level and didn't have mercs. But it was a solo'able path.
That is how I was when I was leveling my first character now the 2nd - 5th characters that are above 60 I learned how to power level basically which is an art in it's own. And some of those classes I played doing specific things like my druid I just kited things , my enchanter i tested out charm soloing and mass pulling with some buddies. I still do the same kinda thing when I am doing level 100 content. I will go to a zone and start doing the quests and stuff just on my main character that way as a tank I know how to help others do it. I think I am pretty good at progressing through content and the only reason I am this good is because of the way I approach the game. I can do entire zones mercs and parts in a couple hours from start to finish. All of that is more of what i meant by the journey. Doing everything the way I have from the beginning is what made me the player I am today. I also agree with the fact that no groups really stinks and is hurting the game more and more all the time. Low levels have it extremely hard and with how easy this expansion is it is starting to show signs in the higher end spectrum of players. We need something at all levels that puts us where we need to be with other people that need to be there ie a cross server grouping feature. I know it would be kinda tough that is why I also think they should start revamping all old content with an alternate zone that scales from level 1 - 100 and has rewards that also fit in with that. The biggest reason powerleveling started was so our alts could wear fabled gear and stuff like that. Everyone wants the best item they can get where they feel it is time to start aa grinding. Which is different for everyone.
