Named from past expansions

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Red-Liner, Oct 22, 2020.

  1. Red-Liner Journeyman

    Happy to be flamed, but in a nice way.:)
    Here is an idea, aimed largely at the casual player, slow players, casual groups and boxers:

    Increase the spawn rate of named mobs in expansions two or more behind the latest one.

    Reasons:
    The casual player does not generally have the time to camp mobs for several hours in order to get their upgrades. Most casual players play when they can, often for only an hour or so. Killing trash to spawn a named can often take several days, and even then the loot may not drop.

    Increasing the spawn rate in EOK allows a slower player to progress quicker through upgraded armour, quests and hunter rewards into RoS. Increases in RoS spawn rates will speed up the transition to TBL.

    Basically, once a player has upgraded their armour, their augs, completed hunter achievements and done their progression they are more likely to move on to the next expansion because they are more likely to succeed in that higher expansion.

    And before anyone moans about making the game easier. Not everyone can play to the same time capacity. Raiders and regular players with maxed AA and group gear will breeze through the next expansion group wise. They should not be concerned about a casual player or boxer working their way through a two or three year old expansion that they could probably solo.

    As I said, it’s only a thought. :)
    NeverPayForLag, MageGuy and Skuz like this.
  2. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    My nostalgia!
    Bardy McFly likes this.
  3. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    Personally, I would add a counter for each named is a zone, every time a placeholder spawns the counter increases, when the named spawns it resets, and each increment of the counter is used to slightly increase the chance of the named appearing.

    That way players can actually 'work' on getting named, instead of it being pure luck.
    NeverPayForLag, Grove and Skuz like this.
  4. Captain Video Augur

    I want ? marks above the heads of every NPC who has a quest available. My play time is limited, I can't make the same commitments as the players who raid every day, and it simply takes too much valuable time to go around having to hail everyone. It should really all be simple point-and-click. I'm sure devs can do this, it won't take any time at all.
    OlavSkullcrusher likes this.
  5. Fian Augur

    I like this proposal. When an expansion is released, they try and make the treadmill take a year to complete. Doing old content that is no longer an issue. Let's face it, when you play a single player game, they don't have the time sinks that a MMORPG has. That is because, generally speaking, players don't like long time sinks, they want to play the content and be done with it. As MMORPG players, we have grown accustomed to time sinks, but reducing them for old content could be a way to make the game more appealing to less hard core players.
    NeverPayForLag, Red-Liner and Skuz like this.
  6. Kinadorm Augur

    I would love to see a new Overseer reward for a bounty hunter task where you can get the flag for killing a named. It could work similar to the collection items where you get skull fragments for the tasks and combining 4 skull fragments you get to choose a named mob from prior expansions to get credit for.
    Skuz likes this.
  7. Zamiam Augur

    I would be ok with something like this , however it should be limited like maybe all expansions up to VoA or RoF only and the fragments I would say instead of needing 4 make it req 8 ..
    Skuz likes this.
  8. Sissruukk Rogue One

    Something like in FM with the Ancients?
    Skuz likes this.
  9. Bigstomp Augur

    I'd rather just have new content.
  10. Red-Liner Journeyman

    While that could get a flag for the hunter, it wouldn't get the armor or aug upgrades.

    Thing is, a casual group, or character is not going to be successful against ToV named, or probably trash mobs if they are only wearing gear from RoS and EoK. And they will have no chance in the next expansion. Not everybody has 300,000+HP and 23,000+AC.

    Having faster spawn rates in those lesser zones allows them the opportunity to move through the upgrades those zones offer, and any complete quests that improve their stats. They may even be able to move their gear on to T2 stuff, where it exists.
    Once they have upgraded their gear in RoS, the next logical step would be for them to move into TBL.

    It just gives slower, casual players the chance to progress. My own playtime was generally a couple of hours most days after work before the wife came home. The current situation means she now works from home and if I get to play a total of 3 hours a week, I'm lucky. It's getting to the point where I'm thinking is it worth the monthly cost to kill trash mobs for an hour+ and have no named spawn. Then try again and have the same thing. It becomes demoralizing for slower casual players. At least during the bonus, I felt a good chance that an hour session would get me an upgrade or two.

    The recent bonus in spawn rates allowed me to complete hunter in EoK and some of RoS. Plus I got to upgrade several armour slots and probably upgraded most of the augs on two toons. Without the bonus, this would have taken several months, rather than weeks.
    Skuz likes this.
  11. aozs Augur

    I'm not really a fan of this idea because it can be a nuisance to have too many nameds. House of Thule is already like this and I didn't care to have to kill nameds over and over while going through progression with a new team. And while it didn't rise above the level of "annoying" because HoT nameds are basically just speedbumps, I could see it being pretty bad for some TBL style nameds where you might end up with fewer hunting options if there's a named every 10 feet that you can't deal with.

    Another example is ToV Kael; during the double rares I was finishing up hunters and kept getting the named wolf spawns while farming, since they can spawn paired with any giant. I have a pretty beefy team so it wasn't much of an issue, but for a group that relies on having all cooldowns available to handle nameds, I could see it being a problem.

    If the concern is for casual players to be able to catch up on gear, I think they've already put forth a solution in ToV with the tradable 110 loot that drops in obscene amounts from mission chests. It may not be a perfect solution but I think it's preferable to a catch-up pathway involving old expansion named farming.
  12. Red-Liner Journeyman

    Why not have both?
    The next expansion will, cater for the hardcore player.
    Increasing spawn rates in TBL, RoS and EoK helps the casual player.
  13. Red-Liner Journeyman

    These named in ToV wouldn't be on an increased rate until December 2021, assuming there is an expansion next year. By then, the teams that now require cooldowns would presumably be bolstered by upgrades from the incoming CoV expansion.

    You are lucky to be able to use double spawns to be able to finish hunter in ToV. Some people arent able to finish hunter in EoK.
    Skuz likes this.
  14. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Idea has been raised before fairly recently but I like the concept of boosting named spawns in older content as long as its a few expansions behind, I'd say have the boost match the Autogrant AA, anything that is in the autogrant aa era or earlier gains a boost.

    I also liked the suggestion of a counter that works like the named in EoK version Frontier Mountains but that's probably an awful lot harder to impliment across all named previously, a bunch of future named using that system, though not all, could be interesting though & I think it's a lot easier to put those into new content rather than retro-fit them into older stuff.
  15. Captain Video Augur


    Precisely why what you ask for will never happen. This is not a single-player RPG, it's a MMO. There are thousands of hours of content here. Many players have spent literally years accumulating the progress and achievements they have. If you don't have the time necessary to do the progression, pick a different game. There are occasional bonus spawn rate periods, you are free to maximize your benefit from those the same way everyone else does. If you want to speed up your gameplay further, join a progression guild and play with groups at your level that can take out PH's a lot faster than any solo. That's part of what guilds were intended for. If you insist on always playing solo, then you have to deal with the content the way it's presented.
  16. Red-Liner Journeyman

    You are right. Many players have spent, and will continue to spend literally years of playtime with guilds in order to achieve the great heights they have. Whether raid or grouped. Those players will undoubtedly breeze through CoV group tasks, and acquire upgrades when it launches. Absolutely fine.

    But to suggest that this game should only cater for people who are able to play with sufficient time to achieve this is quite frankly ridiculous. Solo players have always been a part of Everquest. Real life circumstances have always dictated how much time some people can play.
    Everquest can easily accommodate solo, casual groups and boxers without impacting on those that both choose to, and are able to play to a higher capacity.

    Increasing spawn rates in RoS does not lower your achievements, nor will it impact on your game play.

    However, it might keep casual players more interested in remaining in the game.
  17. Spankage Elder

    Ahh EQ forums where wasting hours, days, months killing placeholders (sometimes for a single named) is seen as a badge of honor and the mere whisper that someone would like to ease this burden is met with intense opposition and gatekeeping.

    I like the ops idea, I have my hunters and I quite literally would not care if they made it much easier to do the same... I certainly don't wish my horrible experience camping nameds on anyone else.

    The tired trope of "like it or leave it" is just that - tired. Advances and QOL improvements do not happen with this mentality.
    Kaenneth, Skuz and Red-Liner like this.
  18. I-WANT-IT-NOW Augur

    Being casual means accepting that some things take longer or don't happen. Accepting that fact is on the player not something someone else needs to fix at the cost of new stuff.

    IMO it's already very catered to you by now having easy access to buffs that weren't available for the time, bazaar access to spells and often new sets of gear that are better. Making that two or three year old content much easier outside of the silly scaling abilities they break at times in missions.
  19. Red-Liner Journeyman

    Being casual isn’t always a choice. Some players of very long-standing can no longer give the game the same intensity that they once did.
    Not sure how it would be at the cost of new stuff?
    It won’t make two or three year old content “easier”. The named mobs will have the same power. It’s just that an upgrade can be earned in the same way, but quicker.

    Did I play the game and raid three nights a week? Yes.
    Did I play at other times and gain group content? Yes.
    Can I play as often as always have? No.
    Because I cannot play sufficiently time wise, should I give up the game?
    Skuz likes this.
  20. Spankage Elder

    it's extremely common here to shun and suppress feature and player requests because a dev once threatened the community by claiming that fixing or adding "x" and "y" would take away zones or features from new expansions.

    The fact that so many players are parroting it and either bending over or accepting that as an answer to -anything- is rather alarming.

    As for the rest of your post, please don't let the vocal forum minority deter you from making these kind of requests or even continuing to play the game. I think the casual perspective is pretty damn important and while they've definitely addressed it somewhat and steered a hell of a lot closer to retaining these players - there's more work to do.
    Skuz and Red-Liner like this.