Re-tuned HAs

From what little HAS been said, i think that this is "just" another side-effect.
Somewhere during fixing things they discovered that the scaling did not work as they think it should have.
They "fixed" that and in doing so opened up not just a can but a hell of a barrel of other issues.

Part of that is obviously due to to the exponential (or well, at least far above linear) scaling of NPC DPS from expansion to expansion.
In effect, they seem to have created a whole lot of "current" content which is now steamrolling or at least blocking the players (depending on gear) instead of the players steamrolling it.

It is a shame that DBG has completely ruined the HAs. Most players I know do and are doing HAs to level up their toons and, most importantly, get the AAs we need for raiding and higher level content. No sense logging in any more for HAs to get AAs. The tune up, along with poor loot drops and lowered exp gains makes it not worth the time. If DBG is trying to PUSH me out of older content and into the new expansion, they have made an error in judgement. Watching to see what DBG response is to the situation they created.

I do not think we will ever get a proper response from DBG. Also I do not think this was an accident or a side effect. I believe that this was intentional to drive the players out of old content.

Also if the devs want to really be "fair", scale all raids to 110 no matter who is in the raid. I bet the raiders would care at that point, but the devs love the raiders. Look at all of the exploited zones in the past, the raiders or top end guilds exploit the zone for weeks and months. Then the nerf bat comes out and blocks those that were not lucky or powerful enough to be in the first wave. The people that come later are SOL and the first wave gets to keep the benefit from exploits.

Over a week now of nothing more substantial than "we're looking into options" with zero communication at all. Almost like they swept it under the rug hoping people would somehow forget about it. Curious what they just tried to "fix" while they crashed the servers.

This is only my opinion, completely nonfactual, but based on the lack of communication from DBG regarding this I believe one of the following two apply. This is looking from the business side as I see no in game benefits from their sweeping scaling changes.

1) To increase EoK/RoS and Gold membership sales due to the fact that no current 110 content can be done in silver gear or using outdated Mercs. This could, possibly, lead to increased boxer sales since, again, good luck soloing or duoing much in RoS. This game isn't super solo friendly, can't really argue that.

2) To try and phase people to TLP which ensures every player is paying a monthly sub. I would care to bet that more Krono are purchased on TLP servers than on Live servers as there is no prestige system and twinking is a thing. This would also decrease in development costs as they can just release a new TLP server every year or so with a "fresh" ruleset to keep people interested. Look at the thread/view count in the Veteran forums vs the TLP forums. They're very close. Of course there is probably a ton of carry over but most of the threads in the Vet forum are related to the Live servers.

Now I know most of you will say "woah woah woah they just overtuned, give them time, go outside, there are SO many other things to do in EQ" Those are all as nonfactual as my previous statements. DBG's silence is deafening.

Again I pose the question. Aside from the exp reduction (mostly 3x during a lesson burn) from the Gribble HAs, what positive impact has this had on the game or the players. I know for a fact that it's had a negative effect on their bottom line.

I thought the response was perfectly fine. The issue was acknowledged (they could have said nothing) as well as a comment that the current forum discourse does not lend itself to civil discussion. There are too many people on the forum looking to just be adverse and call names rather than have be nice and have debate with actual compromise.

As for the product lead, I think it's been evident for a few years this game is lacking leadership. I don't know if the producer just has no interest in a game not called EQ2 or if the entrenched dev team didn't want to listen to someone from EQ2. From the outside, it has seemed the game has lacked direction and vision since Holly took over. Yes, there seems to be some consensus from the various designers, but there also appears that certain designers are just off on their own implementing things without there being a big picture for the game as a whole. Just a bunch of pet projects for their own fun rather than the health of the game and fun of the players.

segap that was a responsible and inviting response....and I am not talking to the eventual dev response that made sense I am referring to the 9 or ten dev response that were condescending to the poster...and in all honesty...when I pay up to 500 dollars to a product a year I think I can be slightly demanding. With that being said thank you for a valid argument without being overwhelming.

One can only make assumptions as to the why. Maybe this was their "easy" fix to keep people from exploiting things and trying to prevent another suspension wave. Maybe it is in an attempt to push people into new content. Maybe its to create several expansions of difficult content because no further content will be made and this will maybe keep people around longer to try and complete all the content until they sunset all the live servers and just keep pushing out new TLP's every couple of years. I really cant think of any logical explanation for the change that is beneficial to the player base and honestly if they come up with a solution to the problem I would be ok with not knowing the why. Everyone says things like "you will be back" but knowing people who have left the game and not returned they say "the longer you are away the easier it is to not come back". Every year less and less people will return and things like this are bad for the longevity of the game as some people will fall into the group of people that simply wont return.

As you said, we can only guess and otherwise go by what we're told.
Lots of "maybe's" there though, and here's one from me:
Maybe it's really just been an attempt (however ill-fated) to correct something that wasn't "in line" with the original idea of a feature.
Since we don't know, in dubio pro reo must apply.
I am prone to think of the worst myself often, and i have to rein myself in at times.
But as you see no logical reason FOR this change, i see no logical reason for any of your maybes.
Much of how i will think of this in the nearer future will depend on the statements and action taken by staff.
As it is, the situation is unacceptable to me - but i like to think better of people than intentionally cutting off the branch on which they're sitting.

It's about time !!

I don't think there is some sinister plot to make people quit, I just think the devs are taking a "trial and error" approach to gamedesign.

Developing "fun" is not hard science, they just turn some knobs and see if it improves things, Their thought was probably to "smoothen" the difficulty curve when looking at the many expansions in a bigger picture.

They just forgot to keep a balanced "risk vs. reward" when turning those "difficulty" knobs...They also forgot that "level-spread" in groups is an actual thing, that shouldn't be punished with a difficulty spike...and that some people like to solo/molo old content...

Surely ..

1. I do not believe any casual should be able to get xp as easily as any raid lvl classes. Its in the very nature / name of the title .. casual ..

2. I do not believe any none tank class should be able to tank current content (raid or casual) I believe that is why there are tanking classes .. and none tanking classes..

3. I do not believe any content that is 5 yrs old, should ever give even half of the xp gained (either per kill or per ha completion) as the new content does. If it is older content, it by definition, should get tuned down in xp gains so as not to make Casuals think the xp gains should be this way from this point forward in game.

4. I beleive any / all casuals (and "new members" who are all threatening rage quit over current HA situation should all go. If you are on the fence in everquest to the point, that you feel slighted some how some way, that they did this to older content .. You should not play the game then an perhaps best for all parties concerned if you just left an not made such a big deal out of it. Threatening to leave vs posting a good bye an this is why are two entirely different things. And when some one threatens to leave especially "new members" it actually lower's credibility of those posting such things ..

5. I believe DBG called all yall on your own #ull#hit .. specifically all yall who claim to love older content .. Its absolutely still do able all you gotta do is make friends / ask friends for help. DBG shoulda just lowered xp gains to such a negligable amount it would be pointless to run them .. But thats neither here nor there, they did what they did, an they got their desired results. .

Maybe gear should have an XP modifier. The better the gear the slower you gain. So, if you're willing or able to get XP with no gear you'd get a bonus!

Bottom line is this, group content should be easy as hell for a hardcore raiders. Group content should be balanced to a mid tier grouper. HA's should be able to be completed as advertised by 3 groupers with merc's that are average. This isn't maxed aa maxed group tier gear with maxed extra's like artisan augs, brells, etc. Because most the maxed aa, gear, special items are probably raiders or retired raiders, and the few that just max out the group game.

Ruven

This is a form of entertainment that people pay for and this is literally the only place for people to voice their concerns to the company that they are paying for said entertainment. If you had a sports package specifically for the purposes of watching one sport and your cable company removed that sport or stopped covering your favorite team would it be unreasonable to stop paying them for something you no longer find entertaining? If they close down fishing at your favorite lake or river for the season should you still pay for a fishing license just because? If a restaurant changes the ingredients on your favorite dish and it is no longer edible by your standards should you just buy it any ways because that's how they make it now? When a company makes a fundamental change that impacts their product or service the customer has the right to voice their opinion and its in the companies best interest to let people voice their opinions rather than just have less customers without knowing why or having a chance to resolve the issues to retain said customers. Simply saying either stay and pay for something you don't enjoy or leave and you are a snowflake as some have stated is a poor way of thinking. As a customer yourself its in your best interest for DBG to retain every player it can because believe it or not there is a bottom line and the more people that actually leave it brings you closer to that line also.

This is not thee only place for people to voice their concerns to the company. You just like I am are able to voice our concerns with the company via their contact point, which is obviously multiple ways, A emailing them directly
B petitioning them directly in game ..

This is not even the only social way to get ahold of them dont they have a facebook page and a twitter page or some such ?

Bottom line is if people are on the fence with staying or quitting (as I said up above) and literally anything will make them rage quit .. Everquest player base is better off with out them in my hones opinion due to them stopping all the crap talk they are doing about the game / company in order to try to garner any / all kinds of sympathy they can.

*Trash mobs* in CoS hitting 46k, yep, must be working as intended. Could muscle through, but why bother? The chest loots are hot garbage these days all 300hp of them. Pre-change, the nameds seemed to max out around 33k for a 109 named. Can only imagine what the nameds are hitting for now. Side note: now's the time for static zone collection in TBM. 4 zones and not one other person in them. Nice job destroying that expansion DGB.

I'm not on the fence of quitting over this. I'm just 100% not paying $75 a month for this nonsense. No expansions, store purchases, or subscriptions until they fix it. Simple as that. I can play perfectly fine as silver and coast while playing for free. Money talks.

#1 is your opinion and as such i (have to) accept it. Doesn't mean i share it - i don't, but one cannot argue opinions and since you gave no "because"... meh.

#2 hmm... and pet tanking stuff is not viable for you then? for me it is or should be - not everyone must play as i do (i AM a tank after all). but i agree that pet tanking need not be "possible" (or viable" for ANYTHING, but certainly i expect it to be viable for SOMETHING in current content.

#3 XP is a touchy thing. i have generally no problem with XP going down as i outlevel content (mobs turn from yellow to white to blue and eventually grey).
However, i am sure we would not have this discussion if RoS were at all competitive (or perhaps better: in line) with EoK where risk vs. reward were concerned.
I have posted about that elsewhere, no need to repeat it now.
Yet, i don't even think that XP had anything to do with what we see. And the "mission XP", fixed as it is, was a design decision - good or bad, subject to another discussion as well.

This

i quote for emphasis, because i cannot disagree more!

NOONE should be asked to "go".
Simply because everyone leaving is one potential raider less we might need in the future, if nothing else. (limiting myself to this as raiding and the advantages it gives you in group game seems to be all you care about)

On the rest of the absolute BS you say in that point:
An MMO is NOT Diablo or somesuch - it should, by definition, be "open" to different playstyles.
If one doesn't appeal to you, fine - but do not expect everyone to play as you do, you little wanna-be dictator!

And the "New member" crap:
I've also written about this elsewhere already - in short: do not discount them by that alone.
When i came back to post here on the AB issues in autumn 2016, i was a "new member" too, even though i HAD posted in the past (SoE forums) and was, prior to my "first post" anything but a "New member" to the GAME even after my return.

meh...
I was in Velks this week with a friend, even though all mobs were still grey. and i had fun trashing the place. That much to the "#ull#hit" as you call it.
As for CotF still being able to do "all you gotta do is make friends / ask friends for help"... duh!!!
a) it's 5year old , dammit! You try and get people to help you there when they don't need anything and there are "better" alternatives.
b) i should NEVER need any friends if i am halfway able to box, as the HAs were specifically aimed at a certain audience, as was quoted here on in one of the other threads about this.
c) Just as you expect old content to give less XP, i expect it to get progressively EASIER with more levels, AAs and better gear.
It'd be nice to have a choice, especially as any new expansion is smaller and smaller, but that too is not for here really but for another discussion.

I do NOT think that people rage-quitting, no matter how many actually did, or upsetting many of their playerbase at least can have been their intention.

And since it angers me much, i have something else to say about this:

(not even trying to argue the opinion, but setting mine against it)

The very nature of "casual" as opposed to "raider" is merely the playtime and the content they're doing.
"Casual" should have absolutely NO relevance to what you CAN do with your character, at most only with what skill/speed.
In fact, the "not as easily" i cannot oppose any more strongly.
We have the "gimme hard content" crowd here, that want raid-level difficulties in (seemingly) even the most ordinary group content. (and to which in my opinion we have to give our thanks for the expansion that RoS is)
What we GET is group content tuned to last expansion's RAID gear (it's the nature of Beta's that i have personally witnessed when i still did them).

Personally, i think gear should perhaps have two sets of stats - one for raids, the other for group content.
Now THAT would put some player's claims to the test - i am sure many of the very vocal "hardcore, gimme harder content, raiders" would complain much then...
BUT it would allow for "challenge" for ALL, on equal footing. (and that's what those pople i mentioned would actually be afraid of, because their "skill" would then be plainly visible and easily comparable which rightfully should frighten some!)
A dream i know is very unlikely to come true. But one can dream...