We want you to revert the horrible idea someone had to change the way exp decay worked in EQ for years and years. As we level up things go from red to green and naturally enforce a move to higher level zones. Touting Risk versus Reward for a new change that is almost universally hated is, I'm just going to say it . I am in between games at the moment and really want to come back to Eq but this xp nerf is a nonstarter for me either revert it or I'll find something else to play. I'll check back in a week or so until then I'll play some LoL with my son and look at other games hopefully before I find one the New Team will come to it's senses Good Day Barton
Which is good news; but lets talk about Risk VS Reward... Rewards come in a few flavors: Armor/Weapons/Augs/etc, Tradeskill stuff, Cash/cash equivalents, and Experience. Lets assume as an expansion ages, the value (reward) from armor/weapons goes down. Lets also assume the value of tradeskill stuff stays the same, as well as cash/cash equivalents. So, pulling it out of my butt, lets say the values of the reward for killing something in RoF would be: (noting that not every mob drops an item/weapon/etc, ts stuff, and even cash; but what they do ALL drop is XP) 20% - Armor/weapons/etc 20% - TS Stuff 10% - Cash/cash equivalents 50% - Experience (You may argue the %'s but since this is just my butt opinion, you'll be arguing with an ) So if your going to reduce the Experience reward by 90% then the "Risk" needs to drop by 45%. Risk can be defined in many ways too, damage, hit points, special abilities, social mob, single vs group pulls, etc. The simplest thing to change would be hp/damage; so, if once someone dinged 101, all the RoF mobs did 25% less damage and had 20% less health; it might balance out. Just remember if you remove part of the reward, part of the risk should go as well. Good luck working this all out.
What is risk? It is just a matter of time invested really. So it makes zero sense that something that takes X hours in RoF, or even VoA, gives 0-5% of the exp of spending the same amount of time in TDS. Heck, some of those VoA named probably are still harder than anything in later expansions when you take into account the abilities they have. The bottom line is if people want to bottom feed in old content, its no one's business how they spend their time. Some people find mindless soloing in old content fun, or relaxing. Some people don't find grouping with other people in "challenging" content particularly fun all the time for the same reason. Swarming is a consequence of the developers cheap choices when it comes to gear and abilities as expansions are released. You give players more power than is needed for the content because you think no one will care if it isn't a big enough increase. So of course, older content becomes trivial before the it greys out. You say you hate swarming, but keep giving us things to make it easier. Then you wonder why it proliferates? Whats sad about the whole thing, is you don't even seem to recognize a simple fact: Those players with the ability and wherewithal to do some of the swarming things you feel are "unfair RvR" are, for the most part, players that have multiple paid accounts, players that don't let their subs lapse, who have played for years. But you are so obsessed with the notion that the mythical "new player" will use this tactic to blow through content and then quit paying as they become bored because they don't play in your "fun challenging new content".
I have 3 gold accounts with a total of 19 characters all 100+. Now that my main on each account is at 105, with a couple other characters leveled up, I usually focus on getting xp on the other 12-15 toons. Right now, with the state of the game and the current options for xp, I just don't log in anymore. For non-raiding boxers with a bunch of toons, what is the point? I used to do the dailies and a few HAs with different sets of 3 toons, playing 3-4 hours per night. At least for each set of characters, I could burn a lesson and get extra xp. With the way they have penalized 101+ characters in older hotzones and not giving xp while doing the actual killing in HAs, lesson has become obsolete for me. I'd rather read a book.
It seems really simple to me. You either want $$$ or you don't want $$$. If you want $$$ Then Get Rid of the Nerf.
It shouldn't be this hard.. Find the changesets that implemented the RoF exp nerf, and roll them back. Unless the developer mixed in other user stories while implementing the exp changes.
If it is the swarming abilities that are causing this issue, get rid of them, or stop them working in these zones. You nerfed Manaburn to death when it was decided to be too powerful, do the same with these swarming abilities, don't penalise everyone for the sake of a few overpowered abilities.
Time ≠ risk at all. Going back and doing epics takes time but entails very little risk. Shawl aug is time consuming, yet hardly any risk is involved. Risk is exposure to failure. As a wizard, I can face tank HoF named. There is little to no risk in RoF zones at 105. Don't have raid gear? No problem. A level 105 Caster Merc can tank RoF named. This isn't necessarily the case in TDS. There is clearly a greater risk in TDS content than there is in RoF. Not so much in CotF, and where they drew the line was pretty arbitrary. But would you guys be happier if they nerfed CotF exp too? Probably not. You're right, people can do whatever they want, including bottom feed in old content. But they shouldn't be rewarded for it in the same way as those who seek challenges in more difficult content. The same principles apply in real life. People have every right to live in their parents' basement and play EQ 24/7. Nobody is telling them they can't. But those people aren't going to make the same amount of money as someone who has striven to better themselves with an education and goes to work everyday. I don't think the exp nerf has anything to do with swarming. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any posts from devs suggesting that this change was in response to concerns of mass killing in RoF. I think they just wanted to motivate people to play in more challenging content, which I am okay with. Did they go about it the right way? I don't know, maybe not. I certainly think they could've provided more incentives for playing in TDS zones instead of decentives for playing in older content. The severity of the nerf is also questionable. Did they really need to nerf the experience into the ground? Probably not. A 50% experience nerf would've more than likely been sufficient to promote play in newer content. I'll reiterate that I am fine with however the devs decide to handle this. If they completely reverse the nerf, that is okay by me. If they keep the nerf or cut it in half, that is okay with me also. There are still plenty of zones to play in, and I'll continue playing this video game and having fun regardless. The amount of anger that is generated from some people in this thread simply because we disagree on an issue in a video game is comical.
There is one difference, Yinla... Swarming is not a wiz ability or it would have been nerfed long ago, like instant nukes, manaburn, and the list goes on...
"I think your player base isn't asking for more, they are asking what they had before. If you remove this short sighted nerf, you will see a huge boost in incremental income both in expansions purchased and renewed subs. No one is asking for easy mode, they are asking for what we have had for 15 years. The devs should have scaled TDS, instead of a nerf. Ruven " ^ this - I cancelled both my subs directly because of this. I don't know how many more times it can be said in these forums: it is not up to DB to tell us how and where to have fun. Stop trying to corral your players into places they don't want to go. I came back after a break (partly due to the pet changes), went to my usual grind spot, and soon discovered the xp nerf. I then went to the new expansion, to discover it was simply not a fun place to be. Seeing as I now have no alternatives, I cancelled the subs less than a week after coming back. It really is quite simple - if you want the players that you alienated to return, undo the damage you have done to the game.
If anything causes EQ to sunset it wont be the players. It will be because of the stubborn Dev's and their Egos. Stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking of what is best for the game please.
Keep the nerf in. A bunch of 101+'s going to RoF laying waste shouldn't allow to you advance your character! There is no risk. Its what 3 year old content? move on.
12 zones to exp in at level 105 is not enough when you consider the zones. The first 2 TDS zones are awful for exp, Brother Island is great just not big enough. Echo Caverns is awful to navigate as is the fighting in the water. Degmar is boring it all looks the same. Thuliasaur is FAB more zones like this please (shame I've finished it). Combine Dredge not done much here since they changed agro again, but its not very big. Arx Mentis not done any group fighting here, but I'm sick of the place having raided here for the last 4 months, not impressed with the zone everything looks the same. Argin Hiz - Nice looking zone, but again it all looks the same Tower of Rot - awful zone pulling is a nightmare, very dull looking zone. Neriak - again pulling is a nightmare, not a very inspiring zone Ethernere - I like this zone, just the exp is awful. There are HAs as well, but as Roshen said it is not fun to repeat them! They need to go away! They are boring and repetative. That said my level 76 Shadow Knight is having a ball in TSS, OOW, DON, DoDH, PoR and in a few more levels she will be going to TBS to work on her hand aug. Lots of variety in lots of fun zones. Very sad that playing a lower level alt is more fun than playing my main outside raids.
Disagree with this statement. Some of the HAs are a blast and have that old school dungeon crawl feel to them. The EQ community *chooses* to repeat just a few because they are easier than the others. That's never going to change.... nerf that one and the majority moves to the next one that is considered the easiest xp. Doing HAs and Chest missions in TDS is way more fun than sitting in one camp grinding xp for hours like back in the old days.
Only risk I have seen in TDS is the risk of falling asleep on my keyboard waiting for one of those kabillion hit point mobs to die.
Risk versus reward is outdated. When corpses stopped holding your gear, dying becomes an inconvenience. Its now Reward versus Time. And this is where folks get upset, TDS was designed to take longer thus the if the rewards were kept the same, players are getting less because the denominator was increased. Even worse, some (not all are in agreement) feel the rewards are less than in the past. For those that argue there are more rewards, are there enough to justify the increase time? So when you couple less reward with more time, it equals less happy customers and more issues. Ruven
This is the very first time that I never purchased a new expansion, not because I do not want to play or even to level up, because in fact I want to do both. But just because the new expansion did not seem worth the work required for the small gain. I wonder how many other people are doing the same thing and sitting this expansion out, and were happy with old content, so the nerfs might be geared towards these type of people trying to force them to buy the new expansion, even if it is not worth the cost. Back in the old old days I used to dream about reaching level 100, well that has been accomplished and if they want to keep people like me around who buys multiple 2 year subscriptions, then they need to do better with the next expansion.
You know what keeps me playing a game? Dying. In any game I play, I tend to powergame, reading up the most effective strategy, cheesing out the strongest build, and outleveling the content if possible. But unfortunately, as soon as I am at no more risk of dying, I become bored with the game and quit. I never say "oh good....I died!". But that's the truth. A game that is killing me is a game that is challenging me. Now, TDS isn't all that challenging (at least the solo missions thus far), but a swipe and stun from a TDS mob will kill me. RoF is a joke I am not saying I agree with the nerfs to my class (pets), and the nerfs to old content, but I understand them
