I agree with you. 1. Group thing I agree, LFG is dead on live, I don't need tips on getting groups either. 3. I agree with this, it makes the game feel more dead when going to actual zone and everyone is in instances so you don't see them. I miss the old EQ being able to solo (and its good way to level, not doable but slow),player interaction in open zone (not everyone in instances doing quests/missions). Newplayers returning they are used to old EQ, open zones and people in those zones, not everyone is inside an instance. I miss the solo kiting vibe, old EQ vibe of meeting people along the way, etc. By the way I've been watching Twitch to see if anyone streaming ToL, but no one does it, I'm guessing because they box, when your boxing its a LOT OF effort so its hard to have a good stream anyways when your focused on boxing. All the streams are just TLP and a lot of P99, I wouldn't say its because its classic and people like it, theres a lot of 1 viewing streams, so its nothing to do with people liking it. I'd say its moreso ToL is a lot of effort and people boxing really can't do anything else, boxing takes up a lot of computer specs, and it takes a lot of energy out of you. So my thoughts is people boxing and no more computer spec to stream ToL, or boxing just takes too much work period. I'm not sure if any other game is pretty box heavy like EQ, but I don't like this direction its going. The group content is pretty much box incentives, I'd like more solo kiting, I'd like to be able to make very very good xp soloing. OR if they had a dungeon/mission finder UI that randomizes/creates the group for you and it teleports you to dungeon/mission. Basically set your role, like tank or DPS, healer/dps, and it generates a group, and this dungeon finder gives like 15% xp. One a day, so it basically gets active people together, they finish dungeon and then if they enjoyed playing with each other, now theres a group for regular content (makes it so its not just keep repeating thing, its more get active players together, randomly so its just not clicks/closedcircles/friends all day long or box groups all day long).
I've been watching this post and have found a lot of good ideas. So here's my take on this post. 1.) need to get more people back into game. I think there are more boxes then actual players which sucks for finding groups and doing progression unless you want to pay. During the time of SoF there was a time of free toons. Start at level 51 with full flawed. Something similar now would be great to get people back into game. New or returning accounts possibly starting at level 85 or even a promo deal of starting at level 100 to help new and returning get up to 120 faster and fill up zones. 2.) We need a new xpac like TSS. but start at level 50 (?) or an achievement quest in old world zones and ending in a xpac to be starting at level 50 in new xpac. this might help with bringing people back and also might be able to help people learn to group again for fun. i met some fun people when i first started but over the years they all quit due to lack of groups. 3.) I've also noticed on a lot of other posts that people would like to get into new expansion without having to go through the other expansions for months. Honestly i really like this idea though since it would probably take the Devs to much time and effort to go from 85-120 or higher maybe if there was a way that the expansions could maybe drops say 10(?) levels for beginning zones? so say next expansion instead of having it 115-120 or 120-125 maybe start out 100-120 or 110-125. this would give others (new and returning) a better chance to catch up and able to play in newer expansions faster. I know these ideas will bring out the haters and the people who think that its a bad idea and will never work but honestly cant please everyone. These new expansions all copy/paste of old expansions then just raising levels and new gear... blegh. its kinda like hollywood not having any new ideas just taking old ideas and remaking them. we need new and interesting. heck even a gnome bst with different types of robots when summoned would be good. In order to get EQ back and a bigger player base we need NEW zones not revamped xpacs. New Promos. heck even update the db store with older xpac collector items and port clickies. Thats my ideas and my rant. The End
The whole entire development cycle since ToV has been half *** backwards. What kind of RPG has you beat all story arc before gearing/leveling up your toon? The whole point of new content in a RPG is to level/gear up your toon while experiencing new content. There’s absolutely no point to levels/gear in the group game - all the group story arc content is complete prior to hitting max level and required level for gear.
I just can’t grasp why there is such resistance to return mob exp how it was for 20+ expansions. There was no great outcry to severely nerf mob exp while massively boosting achievement exp during all those previous expansions. Yet, now there are people arguing that normalizing mob exp again is going to ruin the game. All the boxers and people with cliques hit 120 in a few days so I’m not sure why people are so opposed to people grinding and doing the same, like it’s been for 20+ expansions. Hell, I don’t box and I hit 120 in a bit over a week, so all the people arguing that that grinding is going to let people level extremely fast, well leveling via tasks/missions is already ridiculously fast.
I mentioned something about this earlier, but it may have gotten lost in what the thread became. I remember a time when some players reached max level literally within 12 hours upon an expansion launch. They did this through grinding mobs for XP in lower con levels from previous expansions. I am going to assume devs saw this and did not want players to be max level that fast just grinding mobs. They probably went over scenarios and realized that if they moved XP to achievements, this gets players to play content in the new expansion and eliminates the max level in 12 hours that happened for some. Edit/additional- The chances of someone completing all merc and partisans and missions within 12 hours was almost nil. And if a player could consume all the new expansion content, story arc and all, within 12 hours... then hats off to them. Devs got their content consumed and used, player got max level, everyone is happy.
The majority of instant leveling was either bugs or design flaw. Good example is flipping instances when CoTF was launched (back when the exp was on the mob and a bonus over normal kills). Also, there were several players that were max level on day 1 of ToL in my main guild.
I remember a beta in the early 2010's (forgot which) where the devs at the time were expressing frustration at players leveling in old expansions and ignoring "their" progressing path. They really wanted to "force" players into new content and brainstorming ideas. We were telling them over and over players enjoyed playing their own way but were ignored. When the golden path came out I was sounding the alarms. It turned into the nightmare we have today. Luckily I can vote with my wallet. If any dev is reading this...bring back exp on mobs and stop the bs.
Guess it all depends what folks consider minimal effort. I would just like to see the same sort of exp gains from grinding we had for several years before the change. No one is asking for leveling to be a couple lessons sessions and the fact you use that as an example means you aren't really interested in a serious discussion. And I would agree your silly example of a few sessions of lessons should not level you. Wow the problem is solved!!!! Not.
Actually none of us are crying. We are just discussing things. People are factually stating that with the last three expansion that leveling by grinding has been nerfed and we do not like that. This is a fact. If that is crying so be it I guess. We would just like to level the way we have been doing for many more expansions then the last three. We aren't asking for your favorite way to level to be touched. Why insult folks with the crying comment?
As fast as we did before they put all the exp in missions. Not Faster for sure it was fine then. And I haven't heard one person who wants exp in grinds to be meaningful say they want to nerf the missions exp.
Maybe you've just forgotten how slow grinding was prior to like COTF/TDS, the amount of grinding required for 120 is more in line with the vast bulk of EQs expansion. The speed at which you were able to grind out a level in the 3-4 expansions prior to ToV was atypical of EQ. And like I said, it's not actually questing vs grinding that is faster or slower. They're actually about the same amount of time investment. The big difference is that the quests give you a big chunk all at once which gives you a dopamine hit that makes you *think* it's better, but if you actually look at the time spent it's roughly the same. The real speed up is whether or not you do the 4 hero missions, those give a huge chunk of XP for minimal time investment, everything else is about equal.
You can literally get task adds for all missions and finish up with overseers. There’s not much of any time invested and it’s sure not a challenge. So your argument goes out the window.
I like your idea Polarex. EQ need to keep people who comes back to the game. (I came back 4 years ago and playing on and off). I thought it was good idea when GMM came out. I have longed for the idea you had. Even though I do not need it due to boxing. Why buy new expansion when there's no need for the people who have not reached that level. (or never going to be due to their lifestyle.) Revenue lost for the EQ, if you ask me. And people like to hang around places where there's are some living souls. Not the previous expansions where no one's there. (There probably few here and there but...). There's TLP but due to time available, I do not see it as an option for me.
Here is the problem. If XP was reverted back like it was years ago, you would log in and grind and kill mobs that you can kill. And sometime around a month or so, you would hit max level. Note- I am guessing at a month, that is not part of my point per se. But there is nothing wrong with that, right? I would guess devs would prefer you play content, but hey- took you a month to get max level. GG! However, there are some players who (if XP were reverted) would reach max level within a couple hours. These players would pull immense trains to them and mow everything down. Or they would flip instances and grind out massive amounts of mobs and hit max level the same night expansion got released. I don't think devs were happy with that. So a few players have ruined it for everyone else.
How is it any different than about half your guild being 120 by the end of day one? How’s it any different with AAs? Those same groups are mass killing for AAs and crafting junk. There isn’t really and difference in that regard.
