Adjusting AA caps isn't the biggest reason this hasn't been done. If they can put one cap on it they could put another just as easily. Coding is required to auto-grant AAs at different levels for different classes and this is a very low priority item for them. That is the reason Elidroth himself gave.
you want things handed to you, Go play WOW. Half the fun in everquest is EXPING gaing levels aa levels. Ill tell you right now, SOE gives in to people like these that want freebies and everything handed to them, Ill cancel my accounts I have had for ten years. Whiners for handouts like the OP here are the reason we have so many wow like additions. the 10% soe loses for not implementing these handouts is worth it. Blizzard entertainment->wow = handouts feel free to head over there, myself Im going in game and having some fun AAing!
First off, this was an idea that was conceptualized by the Devs themselves. Check your vote history in game to see the proof for yourself. This was tossed around years ago, and as the voting shows, the majority of the playerbase who voted thought it was a good idea. A class/role that is unable to DO its role is a waste of a group space. Make up any excuse you want to shoot this idea down, but this is a fundamental problem with the game. As mentioned before, the idea of AAs were made when content was not balanced around the assumption that they have the requisite ranks. They were SUPPLEMENTS to your level and gear. Over the years, that mindset has changed to what it is now. If you want to tank, you HAVE to have max ranks of CS/CA to even survive the current tier of content. no exceptions. If you want to heal, you better have your healing gift/boon/adept up to snuff or you are no better than a heal merc. DPS who have subpar DPS because lack of AA makes fights take longer and risk one of the other 2 roles of failing. This is a major MAJOR hindrance to anyone new to the game or to anyone's alt. People who joined because of their friends, who want to get to their level quickly to see the content they are on find themselves impotent in the role they chose. The Devs didn't say they were giving you every AA when you dinged a certain level, they said they would auto grant ROLE DEFINING AAs for the character to be able to play it's role. No activated AAs, nothing too current(when the idea was brought up, they mentioned AAs up to TSS, this might be different now) So to all you people brandishing pitchforks and torches. They aren't handing you an "I Win" package when you ding a level like you claim, they want to give lowbies the minimum ability required to play your role in a group out of the box. Something that was forgotten in the endless rank grind over the years.
That is completely wrong first off. Second off, its not in any way comparable. You do not need 10000 aa and a current 10000 aa character is not equivalent to a 50 aa character in luclin, its comparable MAYBE to a 1000 aa character. Its is far easier to level and especially aa now than it was back when people that made 1 aa in 4-5 hours had it "good" and where people spent a week or three in level 59. Says you. What is the difference between have 100 levels and 10,0000 aa versus 200 levels and 0 aa where all the abilities were auto granted? Nothing except it hand holds people that decide to try and race to max level versus take building their character via customized aa as a part of the leveling process. I like the design. So do many other people. We have a 10x curve that degrades towards 4000 aa which is plenty to do most necessary aa for every class, even hybrid tanks. Personally, I'm sick of people that do equivalent of walking into a fine restaurant, look at the menu, throw a fit that the $20 entrée isn't as good as the $100 entrée, throw things around saying no one could possibly afford to eat there, and compare it to McDonald's as they stomp off without paying their bill. Stop confusing "want" with "need". Gear drops like mad. AA drops like mad. The only reason levels are "difficult" is lack of people to play with, which is not going to change, and making it even easier for people to "max" out a character as if that's the point of the game will not change that either, it will just have people quitting even faster as they run out of things to do.
Personally, I think it's a bad business decision. You hook in players to try it for free (this is a VERY extensive free demo basically - however many hundred zones and 1,000 AA's) to get them to the point of they need to pay to continue and you want to start making free accounts get free upgrades? Why would you do this?
Nothing in that states they have "decided" to do so. He said it was something he "wanted" to do because he felt it was a good idea. He doesn't even say he requested code changes to allow it. That was you putting words in his mouth. Maybe he does still want to do it. But he also clarified in one of his posts back then that he was mostly talking about stuff that 99% of us wouldn't be talking about, because they were NOT things necessary for playing for the most part (beyond CA/CS), and were things like innate stats and resist caps. He also said there would be no more CA/CS because it forced them to increase things like mob strikethrough every expansion and he wanted to auto grant them and end the idea, but then turned around and gave us like 10 more ranks of each after because players asked for it, or maybe because he changed his mind, who knows. Auto granting the vast majority of AA would fall into two main headings: 1) Stuff that isn't necessary to have in the first place. 2) Stuff that is necessary to have, which means taking away the motivation to work on the character in the first place (just like people stop "exping" when they have junk aa left and just get them as they go except for people obsessed with being maxed) So I'll wait for Elidroth to actually state what he intends rather than another player's assumptions about what he intends and twisting of his words. He can change the aa curve at any time he wants if he feels its too onerous. But the fact remains that aa aren't the problem anyway. People don't get sick of grinding them until they are long past the point of "necessary" aa, and its the lack of people to level with in the first place that causes people to stagnate.
I'd rather have the ability to get my characters to a playable level with my guild than the AA issue. I can earn AA's. Getting to 100 so I can group with others is much more difficult than banking out 4000 aa imo.
Raid flagging was always a better judge of ability, even back in the early days. No one asked how many AAs you had if you were holding a key Vex Thal. Now it's simply a solo endurance game where your ability to grind AAs somehow reflects your ability to play a role.
I think the EQ2 devs would strongly disagree with you that Rift were the first with a collection system. Nice try to prove a useless point, though?
I'd like to see them just do away with the "general" and "archetype" tabs and just leave the "class" tab to grind out. They could just increase the stats you get each level or get rid of the stat caps all together, add spell crit and melee crit to gear, get rid of the buff slot limit etc. Half the "general" tab is pointless anyways around 60 with defiant gear.
I'd much rather see a diminishing rate in cost on AA's. They artificially increased the prices of some AA's that have little to no effect just to slow down the crowd of people that are capped aa's every expansion. Just reduce the cost of AA's as the expansions get old. Everything pre SoD at this point should really be 1 AA. Nothing in SoD should cost more than 2...UF 3...HoT 5...and VoA can cost the current amount. If you want the AA's NOW...you can pay the get it now premium. If you are catching up, you get past the stupid over priced slow down mechanic while still having to "earn" the AA's. It's pretty much the exact same thing they did with older raids. Remove the roadblocks to progress as the expansions get older. Do the same with AA's. ~MrGPAC
If they do decide to autogrant AAs, I don't think it would be remotely close to what you think. They were talking about granting a core set of AAs to help get over the initial burden, not every AA up to a point. They also dramatically upped the AA bonus rate, which was something that could be immediately done by design and not subject to code support.
the thing is that people forget here is that your toon at lvl 65 wtih 100aas is far more powerful than it was when 65 was originally the cap. no one NEEDS to rush to 100 and max aa, at that point you're pretty much done except for raiding tradeskilling and housing. the game doesnt need shrotened it's been accelerated plenty. AA's originally were bonuses, yes, but eventually there comes a point where it's assumed that you should have GOTTEN the most basic aas before going 20levels past that point. To not do so is just lazy imo. No need to be impatient. EQ is not a game for impatient people. XP comes plenty easy the only NECESSARY aas can be acquired while still in the bonus chunk of 0-4k, even at 100. There may be raid guilds that for some classes require more, but that's their right. EQ is not a game you buy and finish in 2 months and i never should be
The problem for me is, once the intention to award some mysterious AA's was announced, it makes it hard to want to grind AA's. What if I spend a month grinding CS/CA from zero to max on a tank; then it's automatically awarded to everyone, and I wasted my time.
What if you waited and waited and waited to buy CS/CA and they never did auto-grant them? Then you're less effective than you could be. Some people are going to be in the position that they just bought something when it's given out. The best thing to do is just go about having fun, and if it happens, it happens.
If I recall correctly Elidroth said that no class AA's would ever be auto-granted if and when such a thing happened and it'd probably only be general AA's
The game has changed. Each year, more and more AAs get added onto the already large mountain of AAs. This turns off returning players and noobies alike. The sheer amount of XP and AAs to get to make your character viable looks insurmountable to some people I am sure. This is why that you see so many "returning players" peek their heads into the door only to leave again after a short period. In this case, perception is everything. The current perception to some returning players once they look at the huge AA mountain is "Hell nah, forget this, thats too much work" and quits again. The game just isnt that return-friendly for those long time MIAers.
I have 26000 AA. I earned them all myself. I fully support auto-granting AA. I am comfortable in my elite-ness. I do not have to have others to hold down to feel better about myself. I wish it had been done sooner, along with a lot of other accessibility changes. Maybe we'd have more people to play with now. Then we could have even more people around to regale with tales of how we did it all the hard way, and are elite. Edit to add: Parts of this post were sarcasm.
