AA Autogrant is too far behind.

So you are changing your argument for this to be that people who dont invest many hours into the game should be able to be maxed out?

That is a terrible stance to take lol. The whole point of the game is progressing your character, not having it given to you for free for logging in.

If you dont play much, for whatever reason, you arent going to get every single AA, and thats fine, because you dont need every single AA. Autogrant gives you a reasonable amount to start with and then by actually playing you would get more and choose which skills are best worth spending them on.

EDIT - Low number is not subjective. Numbers are well defined and counting is not hard. All the AA's a class gets from Luclin, PoP, GoD, OOW, DoDH, and TSS combined, that puts you from level 1 through 75, is less than any class gets in the next 2 expansions of SoF and SoD. So again, if quitting and falling a few hundred AA's behind causes someone to not want to come back, they werent going to stay because they need 3x that just to stay caught up to the max in one expansion alone. I repeat this is not subjective, this is how the game scales in volume.

Vaniki server AA is just about current era, only need to grind like 40AA per expansion cycle.
Vainiki server also releases expansions ahead of the level range, so very difficult to fall too far behind too.

I'm really not trying to be flippant or rude by saying this but, my opinion is simply...too bad. You missed the boat and you didn't put in the hours. It is time to get to work or look at other options.

If you want to be able to create a new character on a old server in which people have sunk hundreds or thousands of hours into their characters then realize what you are doing.

If it were made so that you are at the same power level as the people who have invested tons of time, blood, sweat and tears into their characters you are simply taking away from their achievements and providing absolutely no incentive to take the game, or your main character seriously. Having everyone on a level playing field with zero effort provides no reason to play the game and put in the time.

You can't have it both ways. So pick an appropriate server at the appropriate time and put in the work. That option is available. And, if it isn't because of your real life then just accept that.

This is why people play Guild Wars 2.
Got some itch? No catchup required, just jump in the game, there is stuff to do, metas, story, etc.
PvP itch, we got you
Mass players PvP itch, we got you.
Storylines (EQ lacks storylines) we got you
Raids we got you
dungeons, group missions (fractals) we got you
racing we got you
jumping puzzles we got you
guild events (EQ lacks, no guild events, puzzles, missions, treks) we got you
6 year break and return to game, catching up? already caught up since already at max level, we got you

Only play 30 minutes a everyday, falling behind? Nope, we got you on this.
Jump right into a meta and easy 1 2 3

This is one of things you look at in PROS and CONS of MMOs, EQ has a lot of cons due to starting to become outdated, its one of those games were people with no so good PCs try out since they can run it and they can't run the new MMOs because machines can't handle them, well this is one of the cons that EQ has.

You can view it as a con. I view it as a pro.

if you can "jump into meta" in 30 minutes then it is meaningless and holds no value in my mind.

I mean I get the appeal of it. Maybe it is generational. But, I grew up with the EQ mentality and quite like it.

Like, If you think of a game as a long term hobby or interest it is much more appealing to me that you have a path of meaningful achievements laid out before you that will provide a "carrot on a stick" for a long long time. That gives you a sense of progression and growth and gaining in power. If you are just handed power within 30 minutes what are you even playing for? You just want to do an endless cycle of what? for what reason? You are taking away the entire dopamine rush you get from gaining power out of the addiction.

Everquest has been adding - and adjusting - their catch up mechanics for God knows how long. It is pretty obvious that the devs have seen it as a problem since early in the game's life and care about fixing problems like this. Discouraging someone from playing the game or playing on a particular server because you're afraid they're going to catch up to you is pretty weird. You'd think you'd be happier about more people playing the game/server, but OK.

I knew someone was going to go there eventually and act like catch up mechanics put people on par with your own character within mere moments. If someone joined a server at TSS and only had to grind DoDH and TSS AAs as opposed to DoDH+TSS+OoW+GoD, they're still going to have to grind for hours and hours. And if you yourself have ever had autogrant turned on, played during EXP bonuses, or used EXP pots, well then, in your own words, what are you even playing for?

This idea that you are supposed to login every single day and play for hours and hours died long ago. Whether you think so or not, Everquest is a very casual game now - as it should be - but only if you're always caught up to the current expansion. If you quit for a while or are new, catching up can be very difficult (in the case of Live, practically impossible) - when there are no longer any players at your level to play with.

I just cannot fathom having my feelings hurt because someone who has less time to play than me gets caught up to me. Just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Please, if you have truly followed the development of catch up mechanics, when was the last meaningful addition to this part of the game made?

I mean from where I am sitting they have actually made changes to the game that constructively work against players who are behind the curve from catching up, as in the entire XP paradigm introduced with ToV, and before that with the "prior expansion XP nerf" they put in place to force players to XP in the most recent expansion to reach the new level cap.

If they care at all, they have a frankly odd way of showing it, it seems to me their "catch up mechanic" is relegated to "Play on TLP until it reaches live" which would be wonderful if the populations on TLP survived in decent numbers for that, but they don't.

I consider myself a casual player, I take long breaks. I think I played about 2 weeks of TSS and came back for TBS. Autogrant is fine imo. I play about 30 minutes a day to do my lesson burn (sometimes I pop it and log off to do it the next day). I have all of my critical AA. Am I maxed out? No, far from it, but its not like I am useless. Just have to get over needing every single AA. Just go for the ones with the most bang for the buck.

This is not about being competitive its about just being able to actually play the game. You literally can not play the game as intended with the current mechanics. You are forced to beg for a handout if you want to get anywhere.

What do you play as?

Also, if you're only playing for 30 minutes a day, then you aren't raiding, which is where AAs matter the most. Let a new/returning Tank try to play their role in a raid, even on just trash. It's bad.

Yes not playing for several expansions will require, as you put it, "hours and hours" to get the advancement provided in those expansions, that even on a TLP server take a freaking year to go through. This is an MMO, and an old one at that, it is not built according to the 2020's game standards, which many of us enjoy and thus why we are playing it.

There are also other catch up mechanics as the game progress. You get your daily lesson xp boost, fellowship vitality, overseer, etc. Heck right now there are old anniversary quests that as early as the 6th anniversary reward xp potions.

Make use of what is available to you if you decide to just not play the game for long stretches of time and later come back. Do this and catching up to a reasonable level is not hard.

Again, nobody needs every single AA to have an effective character, far from it.

I play an SK. I do occassionally raid, never had any issues. I have a lot more time I could dedicate to the game, its just a personal choice to not do so because to me its not needed.

I feel like this is a bit dramatic and definitely not true. I don't know what you mean by "as intended". It is an open world MMORPG. There is no intended way to play.

I've done fresh starts on old servers multiple times and never felt like I couldn't play. I've always been able to catch up in levels with or without help, and then begin playing with other max level people (regardless of not being AA caped).

It may take some time but the fun is the journey not the destination. Which is why I think placing someone instantly at the destination ruins the game.

Outside of someone inviting you to a premade group the instant you go LFG there are other ways to be productive including boxing, mercenaries, soloing light blues, chatting people up, and one of the most underutilized methods by people who complain about finding groups..... taking the initiative to start a group yourself by inviting people.

If you are rolling a specific server because friends are on it, then they could help you powerlevel till you can group with them. You can try to make friends or join a leveling guild as well.

If you don't have friends on a server or a server is dead, then pick a better server for a fresh start. Like Oakwynd. Anyone should be able to gain 5 levels and a handful of the really important AA in 8 weeks on a TLP.

lag made me post multiple times....delete

delete

That's not true whatsoever. You must not have played the old Everquest. Aside from server crashes and whatnot, raid targets were only killed once a week, total. On TLP they are killed dozens of times a week, the low mannable ones even more.

In old EQ there were no EXP bonuses, no EXP pots, no Lesson, no mercenaries, no fellowships, no autogrant (which I guarantee you are utilizing). And all of those things exist today because yes, Everquest has absolutely progressed with modern gaming standards, and continues to do so with every patch and expansion going way back. Aside from the list above, Epic mobs having their respawn timers reduced, the removal of the Mercenary rank upgrade quest, and changes to keying. All of these modernized changes and you're still here playing. Wonder why?

It's always only a small percentage of you who are clamoring to keep the game stuck in a state that it hasn't been in in decades. Most players are pretty happy with the changes that get made, and if you're still playing after the tons of changes that previously and will continue to get made to make the game less time consuming and more casual friendly, then so are you.

The game unplayable solo and asking someone to make 3-4 accounts just so they complete content is unacceptable. Now if we want to say just dont play on a live server and stick to TLPs then sure we can ignore catchup mechanics.

Try telling that to the mages, necros, enchanters, SK etc. The game is far from unplayable solo, most can at least molo, some classes can't but others excel in it. I've got a rogue I molo with on live when the mood takes me. But most of my free time (non raid time) is spent having a blast on Vaniki.

A giant LOL at you for thinking that EQ, especially in the earlier expansions that this thread is concerned with is built according to 2020 game standards. Adding quality of life improvements along the way over the years is not the same thing and the fact you dont understand the different speaks volumes.

I mean seriously, you made a post saying you think having to get AA's by playing the game instead of getting them all auto granted is something that hasnt been in game for decades. You literally said that, its quoted above, because nobody is trying to remove auto grant, they just want a reason to play the game and be able to progress their character. The vast minority is the people who think otherwise, no matter how much bold font you want to use.

Instead of increasing auto grant, I'd prefer to see the number of AAs needed in some expansions reduced by reducing the cost of AAs in those expansions. EoK springs to mind as the worse for AA.