The F2P experience is horrible.

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Strawberry, Apr 30, 2023.

  1. Strawberry Augur

    I logged into an existing account with F2P.

    This is how horrible you made the experience.

    -All of the gear I own on the character is made unusable, because it is all prestige. I can't play with the character anymore since even a light blue will floor me in a second because I have no non-prestige gear. Since the server is largely dead, the bazaar has no gear to replace it. You're basically asking me to farm gear naked on that character.

    -You can't use aggro augments anymore, since they're all prestige, so the game is unplayable as a warrior. All the DoN chaotic strike aug, the enraging blow augs, etc..all these augs are prestige, and unavailable to F2P players. Even the LDON anger augs are prestige and blocked for F2P players. I could not find a single aggro augment in the game that isn't blocked to F2P players.

    -Burst of power AA were reset to 0 in an patch one day, and you returned the AA to players. But you of course don't allow F2P players to rebuy the returned AA. So Burst of Power is stuck at 0, and DPS output is abysmal, and there's nothing one can do about this.

    -AA like sleight of hand for rogues is disabled. You can't enable this because you of course restricted F2P AA for some reason. So even playing with a merc doesn't work since you constantly pull aggro.

    -The mercs themselves are utteraly useless since you can only use apprentice, mercs that get floored in a few seconds.

    So the F2P experience for a returning player is a naked character, with major basic AA blocked off, with aug restrictions that prevent classes like warrior to even function.

    Why even have F2P. Seriously.
  2. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    Maybe they should just remove FTP? As it is it does whats intended. Give you a taste of the game so you can decide if you want to pay for it. It's not a charity for those who can't afford to play (and yeah I feel bad for those folks but Daybreak isn't a charity). It is "supposed" to leave you feel short changed as it is their preference to sub to the game.

    Make FTP too good the servers get filled up with FTP peeps creating higher server loads requiring more resources... for what? Nothing. I am very skeptical that the majority of FTP folks spend enough in the marketplace to make it worthwhile to Daybreak.

    Plus the more you give FTP the less desirable all access is to those who are currently paying for it. They could actually lose subs if they made FTP too desirable.
    Paladin, minimind, TLP Addict and 5 others like this.
  3. Svann2 The Magnificent

    If its so bad then why are there so many F2P accounts?
  4. Monkeychunks Augur

    You are coming from an existing account - a very old account - that has already experienced what it is like to be All Access. Of course your not happy and feel your armor is lacking. You are comparing well dressed 10 course turkey dinner to a Pot pie.

    I have many F2P accounts and they do not get floored by blue mobs and the mercs are ok. But many players say the mercs are useless anyway after level 60. Its all perception.

    There are many many augs etc to get for F2P - do some research. There was a page put out by the Shadowknight forums that has a great list of augs etc. Unfortunately it looks like who ever was keeping that page up is no longer doing that but you can still find other articles.

    If you have never played this game and are new then the F2P model gives them an excellent idea of what the game is, how to do quests, what to gear up on, tradeskills etc. It does what it is supposed to do...give them an idea if they like it enough and decide to subscribe and get it all.

    They have it to encourage new players to check it out - not to replace a paid subscription. It is not meant to be top of the game. You want the good stuff then pay up buttercup;)
  5. Koshk Augur

    My guess is because F2P isn't nearly as impactful on boxed cloth casters, priests, and bards. Especially after going All Access for just a single month to catch up on AA, and memorize your Rank 2's.
  6. Yinla Ye Ol' Dragon

    F2P should only ever have been to get a taste for the game not to do end game content. Adding F2P was one of the worse things they ever did.
    Nennius likes this.
  7. Eaedyilye More stonehive bixies.

    For the fun of it, I looked at the Bazaar and checked out what I could get my mage if it was FTP. At level 120 I could get all tier 1 NOS gear and a EM 24 ear piece. If one went that route, you could make a respectable all mage box like I do. (I box 4 mages, all gold)

    You can enjoy the game to a point as a FTP player, but FTP shouldn't ever replace a paid account.
    Corwyhn Lionheart and Vumad like this.
  8. Rijacki Just a rare RPer on FV and Oakwynd

    You could always pay for a month then skip several and pay again, skip several, etc.
    Corwyhn Lionheart and Nennius like this.
  9. Fanra https://everquest.fanra.info

    EverQuest is a business. It costs money to run the game. The employees need to pay their bills.

    If you want the game to be free, buy the company and do so. I'd love that. Oh, while you are at it, pour lots of money into EQ so we can have larger expansions and get all the bugs fixed.

    Free to Play is there for people to try out the game. If they like it, they then subscribe. In a perfect world it would all be free. I have noticed that we do not live in a perfect world.

    If you can make a reasoned case to improve F2P that makes sense in a business standpoint, maybe Darkpaw will do so.
    Paladin, alanus, Skuz and 2 others like this.
  10. Herf Augur

    Wow, that sucks. A free service isn't the equivalent of a paying service, I'm shocked. Napster save our souls!

    In the meantime I'm paying for four accounts on a TLP. Sucks to be you though :)
  11. Iven Antonius Bayle

    You are in our world now!

    I had that fascinating experience too a few years ago with my rogue but after a year I had catched up. Prestige gear is only there to keep the players hooked to AllAccess and there is no interest in FTP accounts. You just have to pick up the T1 trash that other players are leaving on the mobs for a restart and you could also buy NPC vendor armor. However you will be thrown back by a few expansions.

    That never was a problem to me and I never heard about pure AllAccess AAs. It is just that AAs are capped for FTP but old ones do stay active if they do not get revamped. Rogues do have many abilities and possibilities including the good old evade to reduce aggro. Maxing the tank merc AAs does help much.

    Good question. It is a half-baked and insidious concept which is only annoying and scaring players away instead of motivating them to buy AllAccess. FTP is only there because the revenue would be worse without it.
  12. Tarvas Redwall of Coirnav, now Drinal

    What is insidious about it and what would do with FTP if you had full control?
  13. Loup Garou De loop de loop

    Corwyhn Lionheart and Skuz like this.
  14. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    F2P is to allow NEW people a chance to play long enough that they don't quit because they are tired of paying to catch up before they can really play.

    F2P is to allow you to log in to your existing account and engage with friends and the game and have a reason to remember why you subbed.

    Both have the end game of making the player pay for a subscription.

    F2P is NOT here so cheap people can play this game for free. Stop being cheap and subscribe or go away.

    I wish posting in anything except the newbie forum required a paid subscription.
    alanus likes this.
  15. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    Doesn't matter to me if they are free or paid. We all have an equal voice and opinion.

    For active players


    If you have not logged into the game that is linked to your forum account in say, 6 months then your posts will carry a yellow tint. Like warning that this is no longer an EQ player and post is not from current experience.
  16. Tucoh Augur

    I sub my accounts for each expansion release and then take my characters f2p during anniversary events in the year. Improving the f2p experience in certain ways miiiiight increase sub-rates because someone coming back would be less overwhelmed by the whole experience. The certain ways that I'd recommend are:
    • Making prestige gear usable when f2p, but decrease the impact of it by a substantial amount (20%). This is kinda how it works right now with spells/discs
    • Make equipped augs with prestige simply not used when equipped rather than invalidating the entire piece of gear (I believe it currently invalidates the gear right now but I'm not 100% sure)
    That way someone can log into their 3 year old raid-geared character and be able to start killing the way they remember instead of having to figure what the current best f2p gear is. I imagine there's a significant number of people who log in, see their UI is screwed, see their gear is effectively naked, aren't sure where to go or how to get there and just log off after saying hi in guild chat. Removing the effectively naked part of that would reduce the barrier of entry.
    Bobokin and Iven like this.
  17. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    You equipped Prestige gear on a paid account and that account was allowed to lapse to Silver/F2P.

    Strawberry, we agree on this. It's a horrible customer experience. You were once a paying customer to be in this situation. EG7/Daybreak/Darkpaw want and need your patronage. The Prestige tag isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but it needs nuance to safeguard the customer experience.

    My Suggestion
    • All accounts that were once paid and have Prestige gear equipped on that character have the Prestige tag deactivated.
    • All prestige gear that's equipped or worn while the account is Gold deactivates the Prestige tag. If that item is ever un-attuned, the Prestige tag reactivates.
    Or, Alternate Suggestion
    • Make Prestige Tokens available for a small fee (100 DBC per token maybe, potentially also placed on Loyalty vendor) which removes the Prestige tag on that item permanently. This should also take into account Prestige Augmentations. So if I purchase a Prestige Token, it applies to all augmentations in that item.
    It leaves a sour taste that items and gear I equipped while my account was paid are not usable if the account goes F2P. My suggestions encourage either Gold Status or spending DBC while not punishing me for allowing my account to lapse to Silver/F2P.
  18. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    I think we can all agree it's in all our interests to convert as many vets from F2P to Gold as possible. What's the best way to get a veteran player to re-subscribe? For starters, let's make the return process as kind as possible. If they were once paid accounts, deactivating the Prestige tag on all their gear is a GREAT start. If they want new Prestige gear, time to sub!

    While it's easy for those of us who are current players to tell them to just pony up and sub, these are people that took time to download and install the game for a solid dose of nostalgia. At first login they're greeted with paywalls.

    Not.A.Great.Experience. I'd wager a significant percentage, at that point, will log off and uninstall.
    Bobokin likes this.
  19. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Having players subscribe for a month to max AA and get new gear and then not pay for the next 11 months isn't a healthy place for the game to be.
    Paladin likes this.
  20. Smokezz The Bane Crew

    Not the first time he's made this post. Won't be the last.