Please improve the returning player experience...

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/game-update-notes-february-20-2019.254794/


see Miscellaneous.

Missed that. As a warrior Boo! But it makes sense.

nm

Eh. I mean I had all my chars max XP and max AA before raids dropped. I had my core group max level within like 5 days. I also have nothing to do at this point, because I finished it all quickly.

That doesn't really matter though. There can be more than one problem with a game that is being experienced by different subsets of the population. Someone who is just returning to the game isn't worried about a lack of content, they haven't yet run out of content to do. What they are worreid about is their inability to experience the content that does exist, which pretty much requires getting into the 116+ range ASAP, because EverQuest is an incredibly top heavy game and the further away you get from cap, the less options there is for grouping, and EQ is a game where without a group it's typically very hard to experience any content.

Trying to act like the only problem that matters or exists is your own pet problem doesn't help your problems getting fixed faster, it just creates a more toxic community. If you feel strongly about the lack of content, you should make your own thread to discuss that.

To expand upon this a bit.

The ability to quickly finish an expansion also requires things that a returning player typically doesn't have. For instance a 120 bard auto grants around 30k AA, and maxes out around 50k aa. If you were already max AA then you only had to earn around 5k AA to get from CoV max to ToL max. However if you're just return, then you need to earn around 20k AA.

The same of course applies to leveling, anyone who completed ToL quickly probably started ToL 99% into 115, so immediately started at 116 after a single mob. They also were either in a static group, or they were looking for groups at a time when the number of ongoing groups going on were the highest they will ever be during the life of the expansion. Someone returning today starting at 85 has 35 levels to achieve, not 5, and they'll basically be scrounging for groups the entire time, even at near cap, because the further into the expansion you get, the less active grouping there is occurring.

There is basically no level of content that EQ can produce that would have someone who finishes the current expansion within a month that wouldn't have the exact same effect while also not creating a larger and larger gap between those people and the people who already struggle to keep up.

The only real answer would be to have much more frequent expansions (or full content patches like WoW does), and much more heavily focused on catch up mechanics.

This hits the nail on the head. Those who are at max end game going into the expansion will not take long to max out on AA and Exp. These guys don't have many issues when it comes to maxing out (even if you only did overseer every other day you would be max level by now).

How far returning players are behind, of course depends on how long ago they last played. We have had returning players come back in their 80's 90's some in their 100's the last one who returned was 115, the one before was 100, but only 1 kill from 101.

There needs to be a way to get all returning players to group up and level up together. 85 - 120 is now too large a gap to even group together.

How does it sound if someone logging in for the first time after a year (and up) of no playing get offerered a free transfer to a TLP server which is at the level they currently are. Just a yes no box would you like to go to a X server where you will have a better chance of finding someone of your level to group with. TLP servers are released every year so there is a good chance that there will one at least one to choose from. I don't see a dormant account of x amount of years having a negative effect on a TLP server.

Of course they would get the option to say know if they have a guild or friends to join on a live server.


Currently no one from live can transfer to a TLP regardless of level/gear.

Grouping is going to be virtually non-existent at those lower levels. The person will almost certainly need to figure out ways to level on their own. One way to make soloing feasible is to hang out in the GL/PoK to get uber-buffed from the random 110+ MGBs and then do HAs like Gribbles, hot zones, and open-world content. The uber buffs will allow a person to effectively solo a good bit of content. And add in Overseer for extra leveling boosts.

The existing community can facilitate this by throwing out MGBs frequently. A huge thank you to all that take the time to do that. It's probably the most significant function that currently exists which can make a drastic improvement to the experience of the returning player. I definitely think EQ itself should look into making changes to help the returning player, but until then, the MGBs from the community are probably the best way.

Much gooder you did.

Thats pretty not bad fella.

1000 % agree with that !
DPG need to revise its “no creative development cost needed, no content needed, nostalgic only expansion “ paradigm which started 5 expansions back.
They need to hire creative people able to write creative content, not just a bunch of bad tech staffs.

They lowered the quality of their product to such an abysmal level, that it is pathetic.

Actually I don't think we've had xpacs without recycled zones in VoA. So thats 11 xpacs back

And while I am not into Overseer its a valid way to get some exp but what is incredibly funny is those who say "How you can want to grind your levels. Grind is so boring. More boring then Overseer? Really?

On the plus side grind exp for aa is not bad. And they do have auto grant of aa up to 3 or 4 expansions back. But yeah its still work to get all the aa. Once you do it becomes much more manageable but getting there can still take a bit if you play casually.

Yep till they change it back. So it will go on forever I suspect.

I just wish they would explain why. Well and change it back but why would be nice for now.

I don't think that the leveling by achievement system really affects this much. If you're level 100 trying to get to level 105 you're pretty much just as much a charity case as someone trying to get from 110 to 115. The quests take only a little less time than grinding does as long as you complete the 4 missions, and if you're getting drug along as a charity case the missions are even easier than grinding would be.

Fundamentally EverQuest choose to make 115+ take a longer time to level than the 100-115 era did, whether you're using the achievement system or grinding it out. Remember that some of those quests alone can take several hours and are only one out of 3-4 quests needed to get a 10% hit in xp. That isn't inherently problematic when you're one of the people playing at expansion launch when groups are at the most plentiful, they will ever be. However, the further away you get from that, the more problematic it becomes.

Leveling taking longer ends up compounding and making the catch-up experience worse every additional level block that is slower. The good news is that they can thread the needle and have it both ways if they just time gate in XP boosts. That lets them slow down the initial rush of leveling to drag it out, while having a catch-up mechanic to cover the new/returning player *and* the player whose just not leveling very fast for whatever reason.

They could increase the ZEM in the expansion zones over time as a way to implement this. At first you get .001% per kill, but over time that could increase to 1% or whatever. Similar to how the hot zones give much better exp than other zones.

If they truly wanted to time gate people from maxing level in the first week then they should just implement periodic release of new level as the expansion ages (and maybe also gated content opens). Release a new level every couple weeks. That would force 2.5 months to fully level. Would also make the end game raid content less trivial as players are forced to initially try it at a disadvantage from a level perspective. This would also allow the level speed itself to be a more sane rate for stragglers or newer players trying to catch up.

Note that I'm not an endgame raider and they may hate this idea. Just throwing it out there lol.