Please improve the returning player experience...

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Kalamir, Apr 24, 2022.

  1. Kalamir Journeyman

    Backstory - I've played EQ off and on since launch. I raided up through Prophecy of Ro on live and then quit for a few years. I've come back to live a handful of times but always get discouraged for a handful of reasons. I've also played on a good chunk of the TLP servers as classic through Planes of Power was always my favorite experience. After playing on the Selo TLP for a good chunk of that, the guild I was in got dumped into live and continued raiding. I quit playing on Selo in Secrets of Faydwer at level 80. I moved my characters over to the live server the guild decided to go to when the server ended and recently came back and decided to give live EQ another shot since I enjoy playing with that guild. That's where the mess begins...

    As a returning player that knows the game well enough and already being level 80 to push ahead and try to reach level 120 to play with my guildmates, this is such an awful experience. Most people are already max level, as expected, however soloing/moloing is only reasonable until level 100ish depending on the class. That being said, I'm lucky enough to have some people assisting me in my journey. But my God is it bad at 115 onward.

    Once I hit 115ish we did all the missions we could and that pushed me through what I was told was the longest/slowest level of 116. But at 117, grinding on white-yellow mobs non-stop, with a 50% exp potion, it's so painfully bad. I'm talking about 0.02-0.04% PER KILL. That's with a 50% xp potion! Why? No one plays EQ at this stage to sit and grind like this anymore. That worked great in the earlier expansions when people didn't only play to raid or do achievements and then log out. It's not fun. It's not enjoyable. It's tedious and annoying. If there were a reasonable amount of missions or quests offered better exp to actually go from 115-120, then I'd enjoy it. The missions are much more interesting and fun than grinding 5,000+ mobs for a single level.

    TLDR;
    Daybreak / Darkpaw - You folks really need to re-think whatever mentality lead to these abysmal exp rates and lack of rewarding leveling content, because this is how you push returning players away. I'm very lucky that I have a few friends that are willing to do this God awful grind with me but I know a lot of people aren't. There is no reason to make returning players feel punished for wanting to play the newer content. You should be encouraging it, making it enjoyable and smooth. You've failed miserably. Please consider improving this experience for anyone else that may come back to this game only to realize it's anything but enjoyable trying to get to level 120.
  2. dwish Augur

    I actually agree with you OP, but this is a topic that has been debated ad nauseum here on the boards. On one hand you have people who recognize that severely nerfing mob exp (or massively increasing exp needed to level, whichever it is) and requiring tasks/missions to progress is probably bad for the more casual players.

    On the other hand you have the people that say you can still grind to 120 (which is actually true, albeit very slowly without a box army) and that the current system is fine.

    Regardless, I would only say don't forget about the Overseer system in which you can log in twice a day for 5 mins for a few months and eventually hit 120 without leaving the guildhall. This is actually a good option if you are returning and don't have a lot of in-game friends, and it's probably much better than trying to grind to 120 without having fairly consistent groups at least.
  3. Whulfgar Augur

    Wrong. With a 50% potion it's 0.064% unless you are stupidly splitting you're xp gains per kill some portion into aa and some portion into lvl..

    I've ran 12 characters threw 111 - 115 while tol was current it's not hard. It is simply time consuming.

    What kind of play style are you using ? Do you even overseer ? XP potions XP potions XP potions?
  4. Petalonyx Augur

    This is good feedback, even as I don't necessarily share the opinion of the OP. There should be better catchup mechanics.

    New heroics will help some, but more is needed. New ranks of mercenaries that kick in after 110 would certainly help both for mob kill rate and for progression exp. More exp potions specifically for returning players. New high lvl hot zones. And finally, some strong reasons for higher lvl players to group with the sub 120s (evolving item exp, etc).

    To the returning players - Find a good large guild that prioritizes helping a grouping. They do exist and will drastically improve your experience as a returning player!
    Feedback and Kalamir like this.
  5. Kalamir Journeyman

    I'm in a full group and killing mobs. Splitting hairs over the exact 0.0xx% is silly and doesn't change my point of how bad the exp rates are for leveling. I do use Overseer. I have a 50% exp potion running at all times. I'm not sure what my exact situation has to do with the big picture, which is the problem I'm discussing? I didn't say it was hard, I said it was an awful experience and this was echoed by a handful of people I spoke to before making this post.


    Exactly. Looking at everything it's almost like the devs forgot people return to the game and level. Why do Hot Zones stop 25 levels lower at 95? Why do Heroic Characters come in at 85? There's a lot of things that point to the devs ignoring the experience people will have trying to get to max level and trying to streamline or improve on it. I know leveling for everyone was a pain in the butt (or time consuming at least), sure, but it's a lot more streamlined when you're fully geared and were sitting at the previous level cap waiting for this versus coming much later. I'm also not sure why some people are so hostile about improving things, especially ones to encourage people to return or play the game?
    Stymie and Oakenblade like this.
  6. Whulfgar Augur

    The difference between you're stated xp gains per kill vs the truth comes out to a couple hundred mobs downed on the tail end.

    Sure makes it look worse when you try to sneak it into a lower % then actually given.. just to suit you're argument but then by that same token.. when some one comes out and hands out the real data.. you can't just try to hand wave them away with oh its just splitting hairs..

    And just curious, do you think you're 1 post about it will be the single post that gets the xp changed to suit you considering there have been hundreds of such posts since tol went live about how bad the xp is ?
  7. Velisaris_MS Augur

    Because those aren't the people the devs are trying to entice to play...the older players that come back and play on the live servers (likely FTP at least for a while).

    They're only doing 2 things:
    - trying to hang on to active, current (paying) players
    - enticing older players to signup for the TLP servers by appealing to nostalgia

    That third group...the group of older players that quit a long time ago (or players that took an extended break) that might want to give the game a try again and play with old friends and guildmates on the live servers (and don't want to deal with the circus atmosphere most of the TLP servers seem to exhibit)...nothing is being done to attract and help them. Everything is being geared towards funneling them towards the TLP servers...not giving them a meaningful way to catch up to friends on the live servers.
  8. Riou EQResource

    If you can kill the trash mobs you should be able to do all the Quests and get those big exp chunks from the Achievements, the exp per kill is also mostly a meaningless figure as exp per time has always been more accurate unless you are taking like 5 minutes to kill a mob or something
    Wdor and Whulfgar like this.
  9. Windance Augur

    I completely agree with the OP and others.

    I think AA are also out of hand and are actually worse to catch up on.

    At least with /overseer you can slowly hit 120 getting 3%-7% a day for 10 min worth of work.

    There is nothing like getting to 120 then having 20-30k of AA to grind out at ... maybe 50AA/hr
    Corwyhn Lionheart likes this.
  10. Petalonyx Augur

    AA are not an issue. Autogrant works wonders. It is like 40k AA now. A lvl 120 with autogrant can group or solo and get the few remaining AA at reasonable rates.

    There isn't enough to do in endgame EQ as it is.
    Wdor likes this.
  11. Windance Augur

    I think you are over estimating the number of AA that are being granted and how few are left.

    Have you helped any returning players recently?

    I have and its a fairly common complaint.

    This is has nothing to do with end game. Its a thread about how returning players struggle to get caught up and the poor rate of XP and AA which make the grind to get caught up not worth continuing.
  12. Whulfgar Augur

    I typically gain about 10- 15% via overseers per day I do it.
    Wdor and Yinla like this.
  13. Oakenblade Former ForumQuest Champion

    I just came back to live after having been gone since RoS. I can say with certainty that it's rough. Not by any means undoable, but more unpleasant than a game that's supposed to be enjoyable should be. I'm just lucky to have a guild that is extremely helpful to returning players, and a wife that plays also that I can box group with at any time. I have a hard time imagining anyone with less than an extraordinary devotion to the game, or with similar lucky circumstances sticking it out. I don't have a solution, but I doubt the current situation with regard to players returning to live can be good for the overall health of the game.
  14. Windance Augur

    That's after you've maxed it out right? When you are starting out its about half what you are getting.
  15. Bardy McFly Augur

    Having literally never done Overseer before today, I can let you know. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing lol, I just unlocked enough on my 6 toons to sign up for a 12h mission, which I assume would yield the best output.
  16. Velisaris_MS Augur

    Once you get everything maxed and have all the agents (which will take some time and is why players should start doing it right away at 85), you can get at least 10% xp per day for like 10 min of time. Critical successes and bonus xp periods can add a whole lot to that.
    Wdor and Bardy McFly like this.
  17. Whulfgar Augur

    Thats with not a single max anything..

    All free packs they gave us.. twice a day ran.. thats it. I only fo the 12 hr ones.
  18. Whulfgar Augur

    Most I've ever got in a days time 1 toon.. close to 18%. That was like 7 critical wins tho..
  19. Burdi Augur

    I agree with OP.
    Recent expansions have been empty since DPG started to produce nostalgia only expansion.
    The concept consists to revamp one or two old zone and call it and expansion.
    They don’t produce quests or missions anymore.
    The leveling process and the game in general became more tedious.
  20. Andarriel Everquest player since 2000

    Just think if they nerfed aa xp like regular xp and you would see alot of people stop playing i bet. All that would be left is overseer and if that was nerfed too most would quit unless they were hardcore.
    Joules_Bianchi and Windance like this.