Casual Player's top desires

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Tegl, Mar 7, 2014.

  1. Tegl Journeyman

    First I have to say, as a casual player I love the AA auto grant. This really helped me in returning to overcome the massive hill. Great job guys!

    I realize why you did it too, to bring back more casual EQ fans like myself, and it looks like it is working!

    Here is a list of other areas that are a huge headache for new and casual players. I'm sure I wouldn't be alone in requesting these:

    1. Previous expansion named spawn rates - As a casual player, I only ever play 1 MAYBE 2 hours at a time. I've been posting up in Valley of Luna for a few weeks now, popping lessons on my toons as I box them. I've noticed that even though I play about an hour a day at a good "named" camp location (3-4 named mobs spawn relatively close to the camp), I only ever get 1 - 2 named encounters per week! This doesn't seem right, this gear that they drop isn't even relevant anymore to the majority of players. Why are these named spawn rates so low? What's the point of it?

    2. Rank 2 and higher spells - This is virtually non existent to casual players who are unwilling to spend the time to either A. farm the spells or B. locate someone to sell the spells. I can understand the need to have rank 2 + spells drop instead of be vendor sold, but why are their drop rates so low? What's the point of it?

    3. Augments - are there any talks currently about a way to consolidate and make more available past augments from previous expansions? I will spend an entire week farming a location in HoT or VoA for one named to drop one augment for one of my toons. This doesn't seem like a very good use of time. What's the point of it?

    Ultimately I am asking, what is the point of these limitations anymore? It just seems like unnecessary time sinks for casual players. Hardcore players are just going to bypass all of it anyway, or have enough time on their hands to actually accomplish all I listed here. This is not the case for casuals. At my current play rate, ill have my entire box team in full Tier 1 VoA by the time the next expansion releases in 2015.....pretty hilarious right?
  2. Tarrin Augur

    I could get behind having an increased name spawn rate for all nameds in an expansion X years behind the current.

    In CotF they did that in a way. Doing the heroic adventures (which do scale down in 5 level increments) give you a currency that you can buy a variety of older augs.
    Tharrg likes this.
  3. Axxius Augur

    1. Are you sure you are killing the correct PH's, and all of them?
    2. Do the missions, they have guaranteed rk2 spell drops.
      '...and higher'? Rk3 spells only drop in raids and are designed for use in raids. You don't need them in casual play and you are not supposed to have them.
    3. Some of the augments from previous expansions are sold on Heroic Adventure merchants in CotF. Do the Heroic Adventures and buy them if you don't want to farm them from their original named.
    Petts and Xianzu_Monk_Tunare like this.
  4. Gortar Augur

    As a casual I want:

    2 mercs in use at once.
    Group T1 content tuned to be tanked by any melee class in T1 group gear.
    All old zones (excepting 1 path for new characters) turned into current generation level mobs for xping/fun (with or without loot retooling).

    I know no one likes these ideas but I still do :)
    Moklianne and Chikkin like this.
  5. Tegl Journeyman

    I didn't realize CoTF had a Aug vendor. That's great to know, but I don't have the expansion, and even if I did, I would already have to be ready for the highest level content (CoTF expansion) in order to buy the augments. How does that solve anything? So I have to grind up to 100 in order to do group missions to accumulate enough currency (through I am assuming many many runs) to buy the augs? This sounds like more work than just farming it itself, which is what I was already struggling to see a time value in.

    I am considering picking up the expansion, but 95% of what it has to offer I would not be ready for until the release of the assumed next expansion the following year. What I am getting at in this thread is there is more than just AA grinding that defines the "hill" that players must climb in order to be relevant. It just gets to a point where it is silly, really silly.
  6. Tarrin Augur

    You do not have to be 100 to do Heroic Adventures. I think you can start at level 85ish? I dont remember specifically. They scale down in 5 level increments, sorta like how LDoNs did.
  7. Tegl Journeyman

    Thank you Tarrin! I didn't know that! Now I see value in purchasing the expansion :).
  8. Tharrg Augur

    There have been countless threads and one thats gotten pretty huge that begs the question... Why are there still spawn times that are like 3days etc... no spawn should be over 6hours.... most should fall in the 2-4 hour range with certain raid bosses at 4-6... This would open up the game in huge ways to casual play. I can understand that spawn times for certain PH's seems crazy.. but at least its spawning. Imagine having to try to get those same names and they only spawn once a few days. If we could get spawn rates increased and timers reduced this game would be more fun.
    Chikkin likes this.
  9. Xianzu_Monk_Tunare Augur

    The fact that you think the Auto-grant was actually good for you explains a lot of the other stuff to me but anyway.
    1. So in a week and you are getting 1-2 named spawns with only 7 hours of play from 3 expansions old content; to put things in perspective, there are a large number of named spawns from that expansion when it was current as well as from older expansions when they were current where people would spend 3-5 (or more) hours a day camping them, so 21-35+ hours a week and not see a single named spawn. By my math the spawn rate is better now. The reason that the rare (named) mob spawns are so rare, is because they are rare mobs. They are not meant to always be up. Sometimes they will spawn a lot, other times they will not. Each spawn has the exact same chance to spawn the named as the one before. If the gear isn't worth having why are you farming it?
    2. The Rank 2 drops are actually anything but low. They drop semi regularly from the named mobs, guessing you should probably get 1 rune every other week; maybe every 2nd week occasionally. Well normally I would say to go find a TS, but the VoA research recipes are still boinked last I checked. Finding VoA and later runes in the bazaar is not hard, perhaps finding them at what you consider a reasonable price is. There are some resellers buying up everything and marking it up insanely high on my server so I can understand that, but it is a player problem not a game drop rate problem. As others have said the Runes drop consistently in the missions.
    3. People used to spend one week (with the time input I outlined above) camping for one quest piece for an item or aug; and you are all up in arms that your 7 hours a week doesn't get it. If the time investment is too much, then don't camp it. Go find something else that has a better drop rate or spawn rate and make do with that item instead.
    The point is that this game is for a multitude of players; while there are some who are super casual like you and want everything instantly, most casuals don't expect to have things made faster or easier for them compared to the people who do it first and/or put in more time in a week. Most of the people who play EQ are not super casual like you (at least according to the last study I read that included stats for EQ).

    You seem to also be declaring that casual means low playtime and hardcore means high play time; I know many people who are casual players but have higher playtimes than the most hardcore players, as well as knowing the most hardcore of players who plays less a week than even you. Point being, there is more than just time investment into being casual.

    And just to let you in on an apparent secret, the only people who actually were fully (or even mostly) T1 group geared before moving onto T2 and getting that gear when the content was new was people who bought it all in the bazaar for exorbitant prices; similar to the prices of the crazy rk 2 rune reseller who has his price set at 20 times that of everyone else. Only when the content was new everyone had the stuff priced like that. Anyway back to the point, you are not intended to have a full set of T1 gear or even T4 gear before moving onto better stuff. Just enough to let you survive to get some of the next tier of gear.


    • Thankfully the Devs are wise enough that this will never happen, because 2 mercs would make this a 1 player game; and there are plenty of those out there. If you want that kind of experience you should consider those games. EQ is about playing with other people, mercs were added to fill hole that had developed in grouping; healers and tanks were severely lacking to the point where you could not create a group for those reasons. Since most of the issues have been addressed and the abilities of the secondary tanks & melee as well as the secondary healers have been improved to the point where any can fill the spot with reasonable considerations being taken. There is no need whatsoever for being able to use 2 mercs however; it is just a request so that people can avoid grouping, not one which would help players start groups and play with others as the addition of single mercs did.
    • All group T1 content already IS tankable by any melee class in T1 group gear. Others have done it for years, I currently have done it in less than T1 group gear.
    • There is no need whatsoever to do this, there is more than enough content at the upper levels that ruining the original content (all the lore, quests, and raids) because you're being selfish and want it to all be max level is just silly.
    Those are the reasons why no one likes them.
    Petts and SaderakhBertox like this.
  10. Edrick Augur

    I completely disagree about that somehow making the game more fun. It's like wanting the Fed to print out more bills, so everyone has more money, and everyone is richer! But that isn't how it works.

    You are posting about this in every single thread. This crusade is getting tiresome to read in every single thread I open.
    Poppinfresh, Petts, Yinla and 6 others like this.
  11. Mithrandyr Augur

    1. They just upped the HoT spawns rates in the last patch.

    2. Just finished HoT progression. I don't have room for any more stacks of spell gems in my bank.

    3. Underfoot also has a couple aug/gear vendors that accept UF currency. Just starting VoA and I still use some UF and SoD augs. The main vendor that comes to mind is in the shining city although they seemed to have one for T1/T2 (in foundation maybe).
  12. Mithrandyr Augur

    This.
  13. ~Mills~ Augur


    Every single thread possible.
  14. Gythlen Augur

    There have been numerous suggestions and posts about having the nameds in old world content spawn a bit quicker instead of every few days or whatnot. SInce boxes and some raiding guilds are perma camping them. So I'd be behind this suggestion. Everyone wants to move on with the game and questing!
  15. Skotsh New Member

    No. To all of that nonsense.
  16. Gythlen Augur


    Can you tell me why having lower spawn times is bad?

    I really am curious. Right now on Vox, we have raiding guilds and people who set up boxes for days on end to monopolize these nameds, so no one else gets them ever. Even if they really need it.

    So you think this is okay?

    Or do you think that even if they lower the spawn rates, these people will just do the same thing no matter the time?
  17. Ratbo Peep Augur

    There's no question in my mind that all of the epic encounters should be "triggered spawn" - so that anyone ready to do a task, and has an able force assembled, can do it "on demand".
    Some of the later ones were moving in that direction - for good reason.
    -Rat
  18. Tharrg Augur

    I only suggest my idea in forums that ask how to fix something that I feel changing the spawn times will fix. Look at the OP's 1st area of headache.... I am directly relating and commenting on that. My suggestion is not going away. I see spawn times as a huge problem that should be corrected. Everyone who hates me posting that they should fix it should understand that I am not the only one who feels this way. You are not offering any solutions... you are telling people to get over it and stop complaining. But thats not the right attitude to have. Your bringing a Republican talking point into this conversation is only further proof you seem to just want arguments.
  19. Edrick Augur

    It wasn't my intention to bring politics into this. One of the first questions a micro/macro economics 101 professor would rhetorically ask students is why doesn't the government (Sony, in my sloppy analogy) just make more money if people are struggling. It doesn't have to do with partisan politics, promise.

    As for offering solutions, you're right, I don't have any - because there needs to be a problem for there to be a solution. I've read the issues people have, like about epic drops from Cazic, who is pretty much permadead, but that was circumvented ages ago by the 1.5 prequest. The ultimate goal is the usefulness (for most classes, at least) the 2.0. My opinion, summarized, don't fix what isn't broken, you can't get everything you want, and if you want something rare and sought after, you do the time. If you don't have the time, which is true sometimes for almost everybody, then you miss out.

    In my case, I've been trying to get Vaniki for years (since Velious!) for a Willsapper, and I still can not get that guy with his ridiculous spawn time and the possibility he won't even spawn during the 5 or 7 day interval he can spawn. I would have loved that item back then as a paladin, and still want it today for novelty purposes, but I just accept I can't get it now and I may never get it.

    We disagree and won't agree on this issue, which is quite apparent, so I will stop here and let the topic continue. Send me a PM if you feel like you haven't gotten your say in.
    Moklianne likes this.
  20. Tharrg Augur

    But is the topic not about how to solve the 3 issues the person who started the topic asked? I offered a solution. Yes I see your point economics wise and the analogy however I think that analogy does not fit the situation. The problem that this game has is that it is still in some situations using the model it began using 15 years ago. Spawn times are one of those models. Look at the spawn times of new content for the past 5 years. You will see rare spawns but you dont see 3-7day rares like you did back in the beginning. This is because the player base and the need to have such long spawn times changed. This is why I see no point in keeping those older content in the same boat. Casual players in todays game does not want to wait for days to get a spawn. Rare mobs that spawn .1% of the time should be a thing of the past. A mob that spawns 10-30% of the time makes more since. I think they should look at this from the point that older content and new content should not be unavailable to all but those who can dedicate hours upon hours farming. Or be unavailable because certain players lock the target down from everyone. This kind of playing was ok back in the start but now its just a bad model. Yes they made 1.5 to bypass the fact that so many people were complaining that the locked down mobs were controlling who got their epics.... but that was not a fix. That was a bandaid for a severed arm. This did nothing to fix the fact that the content was being permacamped or locked down.. it also did nothing to fix the horrible spawn times and the people who wanted to progress through each stage of the epic. Should the person who started this post be denied access to content he payed for just because the designers years ago came up with a spawn frequency that is no longer doable by all but a few? And what harm would come from changing spawn times and or updating spawn frequency? Really? what harm is there and how would that negativly affect the game for everyone? Most arguments against it are the same "the content is outdated and so why waste time" so my question is, if its no longer current content and no longer a threat to balance issues...... why NOT change it? It clearly would not negativly affect you.. unless you were one of the permacampers that was benefiting through manipulation of the market. I dont think you are but still What harm is there?