AA Autogrant is too far behind.

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Montag, Apr 19, 2023.

  1. Montag Augur

    Makes it too overwhelming to catch up.
  2. Kukaw Augur

    It can seem daunting, but if you're able to hit it hard during a bonus xp period, it really isn't too bad.
    I am a VERY casual player and my 2 main toons are usually banking AA before the next expansion drops.
    I won't lie, I don't have every single one, but I pretty much always have all the ones I care about with a 100 plus banked.

    Also, being on TLPs can intensify that feeling a little bit; remember once you hit Live you will have a whole year to catch them up.
  3. TLP Addict Augur

    No it doesn't, it's a huge help in catching up, unless you expect to be main tanking raids the day you hit max level it's more than sufficient to get you up to speed to contribute to a guild or group.
    Appren likes this.
  4. Captain Video Augur

    This has been asked for at least a few dozen times before, they aren't going to change it. Oakwynd will have AA XP bonuses that unlock along the way as an alternative. Devs have talked in the past about updating the Overseer to add tasks specifically for AA XP, I don't know why this hasn't happened yet. On existing servers, since the Overseer can generate regular XP, another option once you ding 85 is to use your XP slider to throw all combat-generated XP into AA, and let the Overseer help you level. Quite a few boxers players on Aradune are doing this.
  5. Domniatric Augur

    Disagree. Play the game a reasonable amount and you very easily obtain the AA that is important to your class.

    The consequences of handing out everything for no effort is that it takes away the entire effort=reward scenario which makes games fun to play to begin with.
    CatsPaws likes this.
  6. minimind The Village Idiot

    It depends on how quickly you expect to go from level 1 to max level/AA and how much you plan to play. For someone who accepts that it will take time, it's a non-issue. For someone who expects auto-grant to effectively mean "power-level and then one week of AA grinding", it won't meet expectations.
  7. Brildon Augur

    Autogrant is fine how it is. There is also other catchup mechanics behind the scenes as well, not sure when it starts, but even after the autogrants, if you are so far behind on AAs you actually get increased AA experience up to a certain point. Starting in TBS you got fellowships where people that have capped can feed you vitality/rested xp

    There is also many AA's you can skip out on focusing on more important ones first that result in more AAs autogranted as you go to help catch up.

    IMO, not everyone should expect to always be AA capped or have the expectation they can be gone for a month, a year, etc and catchup on AAs in a couple of weeks. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
    Saman likes this.
  8. Montag Augur

    I understand people not liking the game being made too easy and not liking people being given for free that which they had to grind for but the bottom line is that people don't come back and resub because it's too daunting a task to get caught up.The game needs subs to make money. They are yet again shooting themselves in the foot. What kind of sense does it make to leave barriers to re-entry so huge that people just don't pay you?

    On a TLP you might be having a blast but IRL intrudes and you have to leave, or even just want to try another TLP that gets boring after six months and you want to come back and you need 1000 AAs to catch up so you just don't bother and you let your sub lapse and go do something else hoping maybe the next year's TLPs will be interesting enough to merit starting over in classic again (Oakwynd isn't).
    ForumBoss likes this.
  9. minimind The Village Idiot

    It's not that. Playing the game is the game. Making a game where it's too easy to get to one of the "ends" eliminates part of the game. Everquest is a marathon game, not a sprint.

    Everquest definitely suffers from being extremely top-heavy (the vast majority of active characters are level 85+) and thus it makes sense to have a significant AA grant system... but there is such a thing as "too much".
  10. Pikollo Augur

    With all the smaller expacs that didnt grant aa it can feel behind. Later in the game (SoF?) you get autogrants every expansion unlock. In that 70-75 block its very hit or miss.

    While we are at it. MotM is very behind too.
    Appren likes this.
  11. Domniatric Augur

    You act like you can't play the game unless you are AA capped but, you can.

    If you want to be top tier then you need to play the game seriously. There is no reason that everyone should be at the same level regardless of how much they play. It creates no incentive or reward for playing the game. And it drags everyone down to the point that is is boring and meaningless to play.

    Enjoy the journey and accept your reality for what it is. There is no shame in that.
  12. Rasper Helpdesk The Original Helpdesk

    I like the notion of a single AA xp bar shared by all characters on an account on a server. Meaning if I earn 1000 aa on my main, then create an alt, the alt would have 1000 aa to spend when they leveled up. Your first time leveling to max level/aa wouldn't change, but would make alts much more viable.
  13. Shakara Augur

    Issue that's often not addressed when trying to catch up is abiltiy to actually play the game. If you are a fresh account of a server you really have no people to play with and EQ is outright impossible to play if you are alone. If by chance you get some charity or spend money and get a PL you can get to max level but often you are missing tens of thousands of AAs this means your characters is functionally inept and even though you are of level to group with people you can't contribute meaningfully and your gameplay feels meaningless like your brother handed you a controller that's not plugged in. In essence there is a baseline of power an EQ character needs in order to feel fun playing and the current catchup mechanics do not allow someone to reach that baseline.
  14. Atomos Augur

    I actually was going to make this post myself - not for myself as I have ample time and dedication, but one of the #1 answers I get when people say they don't want to start fresh or return to a TLP is because of the amount of AAs they need to catch up on.

    Currently the system autogrants up to 4 expansions ago that had AA. This means that during TSS you are autogranted only up to PoP, since LoY, LDoN, DoN, and PoR do not have AA, but PoP, GoD, OoW, and DoDH do.

    I think the problem here is only counting expansions that grant AA. If it was just autogranted 4 expansions ago no matter what, then TSS would autogrant up to OoW which would just leave people needing to catch up on DoDH and TSS, which is still plenty.

    The difficulty of the game increases every expansion regardless of whether AA are added or not, so having this EIGHT expansion gap between current and autogranted AAs is kind of silly.

    On the other hand, I'm not opposed to it being less than 4 expansions ago, I think it could make more sense to put people into a position of being ~6 months behind rather than ~a year considering the pace of TLPs.
  15. TLP Addict Augur

    Just grind more.
  16. Ishbu Augur


    As Pikollo stated earlier in this thread, this is a non issue for most of the game, it is only that level 70 block that really gets drawn out and held back.

    Additionally, these expansions have relatively few AAs, and even less important ones for a class. If having to play the game to get this low number of AA's prohibits people rom coming back, those people were never sticking around going forward anyways. Shaman, as an example get more total AA's in the level 85 expacs of SoD and Underfoot, than all previous expansions combined.
  17. Atomos Augur


    You just further proved the point that it is a problem. People already feel behind, then there's expansions upcoming that will put them even further behind? And "low number" is subjective. If you play everyday for hour and hours, that's cool, but most people don't. Can't, even. So that's not what the game should be designed around. And hey! If it's too fast for you, since you like grinding so much, feel free to turn autogrant off! At least there is that option on one end of the spectrum.

    It's much less of a problem for those who box and spend 0 time LFG, or those who are willing to buy Krono to get PLed, and for those of us who have been playing all along and are always up to date on current content. This isn't for you and I, it's for those who are returning or are starting fresh.

    Regardless, at the very least the ~70 block should be fixed, people definitely seem to agree on that since it continually gets mentioned.
  18. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I think AA Autogrant is fine where it is, should have to put some effort into it, maybe there is an argumnet for faster AA gain on TLP vs live but I certainly didn't have any issues maxing out AA on Phinigel working a 40 hour week & having 1-2 evenings a week I didn't play at all.
  19. Lawyer Augur

    No, it's fine as is. It rewards the people who are keeping current. And yet it allows people to jump back in and do OK.
  20. Lawyer Augur

    Truly a casual player.
    Skuz and Captain Video like this.