Totally disagree with the specific level 90 / 3k AA...something else maybe but not 90/3k...way too much given away at that point. Still, something that helps lower the burden should be considered. More bonus...auto-granting AAs at levels...something...but auto leveling and auto AA would seem a bad idea.
Then people log in every day, claim the AAs and log out, just like what they do with the free LoN packs.
I said simple..... If that is all their doing then they will never solve their own problem. SoF introduced daily tasks that were fairly simple that yielded faction, an aa or so and didn't require killing anything. That is much more in line with what should be done. But it isn't simple.
Yes it is about AAs, which is why I mentioned them in the post. Not sure what our point is supposed to be. Soloing is not what your role is in a group. Your ability to solo should not hinder or promote your role in a group or a raid.
What is in place currently is fine with a fast track to achieve a bare minimum degree of readiness while still requiring a fair amount of input on the player's part.. Catching up is not just the comparison of lvl and AA counts. It is also knowing what comes with it, such as knowing how to use those AA and whatever new skills/spells etc safely and in the right situation. The learning curve must stay in place. Just giving everything away without some work is just going to encourage a large crop of incompetence when it comes time to engage in current endgame content.
Yeah, just "giving everything away" is going to put mercs out of work. Think of those poor mercs! God forbid we have more players join the community, instead of more robots. God forbid we have more people around to group with, and raid with. Robots can't be added to raids you know. The "Zomg anyone given all their CA/CS ranks won't know how to play EQ 4evah" stuff is hilariously awful. Helping other people is not a bad thing. Try it once.
There are AA that should be just given to a class once they reach a certain level for example pet classes should be given /pet hold. This AA has always annoyed me as I have always thought it should have been just given to pet classes in the first place. I am sure there are other examples of this but its the only one i can think of off the top of my head .
They could consolidate alot of the general AAs and clean it up a bit and maybe alter the AA needed to max it, but not too much. Who wants to grind? Consume the content. I rather see more AA/Exp rewards tied to consuming content. Go back and add progression/achievement rewards to older expansions. Those two things could help a tiny bit and least throw a small bone to new players.
This is exactly it, actually. It should go through the AAs up through lvl 75 and maybe through SoF (lvl 80). Let them earn them beyond that...and maybe put the AA bonus in effect for 1-2k AAs beyond that to help out a bit more...but yeah. Having AAs be auto-granted through that level will help immensely for people returning...and I don't really see how it 'devalues them' at all considering it's to help returning people get back into the groove faster and to help prevent them from getting frustrated and just quitting again.
Ronak, I don't get it. How is what is in place as of now wrong? Is there something flawed with having people have some understanding of what has been opened up to them by actually getting some practice? Maybe in your guild people can be handed any class and they will play them well, but good chance many of them had a good 10-13 years to figure it all out. Some classes it would really be important for those that play them to have a good handle on what it is that they have. Such as bards. A PLed bard is dangerous, but perhaps others are cool with it. I'm not. A toon PLed by Sony or by another player is still PLed. Its doubtful anyone is going to outright say that they hate helping others become better players, but there usually has to be a basic understanding already in place from which to go from. Sure, for many they can confidently say "EQ is easy" and maybe it is...if you have been playing a while. The context here would seem to be "how would this benefit a completely brand new player or someone who has been gone so long they might as well be new". I could be mistaken. /shrug. Maybe people just want an even faster way to get more boxed alt but will carry the torch for auto-granting everything for the sake of new players. Anyway, getting to the point where people can group with more experienced players is already exceptionally streamlined. Maybe some of the more boring stuff, like CA/CS could be granted to the classes that need it most, such as tanks, as part of the base template of a tanking class. The important class defining skills needs to be practiced, though. Most any game you play where there are levels and experience (even if it is not displayed to the player) requires spending time in the game world adventuring and learning. You can hand someone a 5 thousand dollar Les Paul guitar but it is worthless if they can't play a single chord on it or you can hand someone a high dollar Italian sports car but again it is worthless if the concept of having a clutch peddle or the lack of "D", "P" and "R" confuses them. Sure, they will figure it out, but the collateral damage along the way will be far greater as opposed to taking a slower, more modest pace.
Powerleveling has been an issue since day one, this will not make it worse or better. It's pretty simple. People will learn as they play and it might encourage them to ask questions. The community easily weeds these people out and that is as it should be. If you don't constantly do PUGs then this wouldn't affect you in the slightest. The amounts of AAs required for guilds can be adjusted to compensate, but regardless this won't change much of anything other than helping new, returning, and alt players.
Auto granting people such things as stat AA, CA, CS, innate regen lines, innate mana regen lines, and stuff like that is going to be handing people freshly minted level 100 max AA characters? I don't think so. I also think that those lines, and many others can be selected, have absolutely 0 to do with learning to play a class in any way, shape, or form. It's really rather simple in my opinion. Anything mercs are auto-granted (in other words, what code does to them to give them the effectiveness of properly AA'ed players of their class), new players should be auto-granted too, as they level up.
Depends on what the EQ dev team is aiming for really. That decides where the line is drawn. If the game does not really begin until whatever is the current top lvl with the desire to herd the majority of the player base into the latest expac, than new character creation needs to reflect that. IMHO, if people want to bypass all the lvling process, they should have to part with some dollars while allowing what is in place currently to still be absolutely free. If SoE can get into the plat selling business with Krono, there is no reason they can't get into the PLing/character/items selling business as well. I can see some things like CA/CS being built in for tanks in that you never see it. It is just there and works. Still, the list of AA that are "Must haves" vary by class and are actually a small list. A lot of what AA is tends to be busy work to keep people playing since after a point the law of diminishing returns kicks in big time. SoE would need to look at their business model first before they consider how much "time" they can give back to the players, since they are in the business of selling blocks of time. If they do give, count on there being some take.
Precisely. It's not about handing anything to a player w/o them learning anything along the way. They still have to level up...and these lower level AAs aren't going to hurt the player's ability to learn their class by giving them to them as they level up. Auto-granting the older versions of these AAs as they level up (to a certain point, as I and others said) will help to get them to a point where they can start to actually learn to play the 'modern' versions of their class...which is what really matters these days, anyway (since there are so few lower level people, unless you're on a prog server or something). *shrugs*
having skipped most of this last page for brevity, i'd like to ask these guys saying there are no "new friends" to be had for these lower players, if you regular yoru general channels or pay attention to it. On bertox at least we have several family/group guilds taht will flat out compete for players, of literally all levels, 1-100, and i dont mean poach from one anohter but the instant a returnee says theyrel ooking for a guild for returnees/new players everyone's racing to send them tells. Maybe bertox is an anomaly but this happens a dozen or so times a day around here and the guilds are very helpful to their members right off thebat adn do have members of all levels to gorup together and higher levels more than willing ot help some get caught up on the newer things in the game and on xp if needed etc. Does this not happen at all elsewehre or do people jsut not join general and ask?
one option insteed of auto granting AA's if the Devs are undecided what aa's per class or general AA's or special AA maybe they can add to the Shared EXP AA ablity to that char so playing that toon will grant extra AA EXP banked? make the Toon play it to get the use of that extra AA exp. or just change that very poor raito what 1 tic normal EXP is like .01 of an AA EXP. Adjust the ratio for lower AA levels so its more 1 : 1.
huh? what is "shared exp aa ability"? you mean fellowship sharing? they alreayd have to play to take advantage of the bonus...
These are my concerns, since I bet some of you are ready to bury me alive: 1) The game is still fun, challenging and has goals to pursue. 2) That players at the current game are not absolute garbage and require constant hand holding. 3) That enough social interaction happens to maintain some semblance of a community and that people still feel inclined to reach out past boxing/mercs/guildmates/fellowships/cliques so as guilds can actually recruit on a basis slightly better than just a cold call. Those needs are met and I honestly do not give a rat's butt what is done change-wise. If selling blocks of time (IE, the subs we pay) are just a loss-lead item for SoE, with the real money maker being sales of services and SC marketplace type stuff, than there is no reason to not truncate the lvling/AA process substantially. With FtP online, it does seem to suggest that subs are not where the money is.
1) The game will still be fun, challenging, and have goals to pursue even if they granted AAs. The original discussion about this was brought up by Elidroth himself and the original idea was to give things that are required to function in today's game. If say a mob is designed around the tank having most if not all the levels of CA/CS then they should be granted. It wasn't about just giving all old AAs to players, only certain ones mostly if not only in the general and archetype lines. 2) Players at the current game are absolute garbage and require hand holding now often enough. There is no reason to believe this would affect that. 3) There is hardly social interaction happening now. Boxers, guilds, fellowships, and cliques all exist now and this again is not going to change just because a few AAs are given out with certain levels. Now with the idea brought up in this thread I can't see it getting worse really either, but it really might make people more likely to continue playing. Everything about the game today is geared towards driving players to the endgame as quickly as possible. Some people resist the urge and go at their own pace, but the biggest majority of players are at the end game and people always strive to find others especially in an MMO.
