Changes with the February Update: Alternate Ability Grants for Gold Members and Ability Changes

I totally disagree with giving the aas out just like that, after hitting each lvl it felt good to buy the right aas to make my toon better, now your dumbing down the game yet again, Huge Sigh =( getting aas is easier to get now then when I first begin playing EQ, Just leave it as it is geesh why ruin things.

you must never been in bad groups... I have been in some pickup groups that put a sour taste in my mouth. Its what ultimately got me into boxing and soloing in the first place. I guess deep down i've always been into soloing. I started my first real class as wizard and later got into quad kiting. Much fun was had.

I like the changes.

Sickly, this is my favorite part of the job in many ways. When there are big issues to discuss and get feedback from the players on my role becomes much more demanding. Posting patch notes doesn't really get me excited, and I can't get a date right to save my life anyways.

No, they will go in as part of a regular monthly Game Update. We're not going to ninja this in, that's absolutely the opposite of what we are doing.

Honestly I've been there and feel you. I leveled my cleric from the upper 60's when I came back to 90. Find good people and add them to your friends list. Real clerics are so much better than mercs, I'd take you in any of my groups any day over a level 100 merc. Once you get in a rhythm of a good guild and good friends you'll never lack for groups.

Soe please take note... 2 days and 96 pages of mostly neg comments? hmmm think you hitthe wrong button on this change too. 2 for 2 misses.

Bomana

How about no? It is so ridiculously easy to gain aa now, I mean it is stupid easy as it is. The move dumbs down the game, but you can have your opinion, and I will have mine.

I am the only "vocal" one from my small group of gaming friends. We have been discussing this topic between ourselves. We all agree that both the anti-swarming action and the auto granting of AA's are a FANTASTIC move! We can't count the hours we've spent trying to get individuals caught up, and are looking forward to this burden being lessened. These proposed changes have made certain individuals from our group more interested in playing more often, as they would have less of a feeling of hopelessness to catch up.

Who ever said anything about expecting a return on an investment?

This isn't the stock market, commodities, vintage bottles of scotch...

Its a F'ing game.

You know, if someone ground out all their AA on their own but had no idea how to use them, they would suck just as bad as someone who got them handed to them. We all know someone who has done it the "right way" and they still blow chunks skill wise. Suck is suck. If people want to get better than they will do the research on their own. It is still on the community, be it guilds, groups whatever to determine if someone is worth taking a risk on. They could be a Heroic toon, an auction site purchase, a gift, someone gifted AA's, someone who somehow got to the endgame having not a clue on their very own, PLed by a insert mass killing class here etc. Some mass killing class who was paid by someone buying a Krono FROM SONY LEGIT AND SELLING IT IN THE BAZ FOR LEGIT PLAT ....

Expecting a return on investment for a hobby is just...dumb. Its not a hobby at that point.

As for the rest of your post.....garbage. I took a crap and wiped my bum with it.

Good day sir.

Again the issue is nobody wants to group. Aside from guilds who have their preset groups this game is a box fest with mercs. This game is about advancement and reward. If you don't have it people will not play. Every once in a while you will see a group forming and after about 20 min it disbands because the exp isn't as good as other methods. Because of this mass killing has become the chosen path where people can see some advancement in a short burst of time.

Even if they did quick instanced dungeons where players join and crawl through old dungeons like Guk and Sol b. Give people a reason to group. Give people a reason to log on for an hour and accomplish something. As people join merc disappear and as people leave mercs take their place. To keep the dungeon flowing. There are so many old dungeons that this would keep people entertained for months.

LOL let me speak for everyone

It's highly likely to have a personal option to opt out as a result of the feedback in this thread.

The people who read the boards and post are a small minority of the playerbase. Besides, some of the most damage to the game's health in the past has been done by tuning the game to vocal players on the boards. Does the name Furor Planedefiler ring a bell?

As someone who has avoided posting on message boards since /BrellRants.... I am compelled to do so even if the board trolls tear my post apart, in support of a community that I continue to find enjoyment in, 15 years after my original creation.

I read a very long post about game updates and thinking long and hard about feedback and content.--This post seems in-congruent with the planned February updates. The launch message appears at face value to be very well thought out, supported with data and a nice colorful chart. When you extensively think the mini-launch plan through... you can see that this has (yes) game changing effects that are negative.

Particularly the Sk "nerf". As a class who depends heavily on knights, both in raid settings and in group content, I anticipate that this will skew many players game play and cause a good score of people to quit playing altogether.

Once upon a time... you did have to quest for trade-skills. Once upon a time... no one knew how to play with a druid because they were a SOLO class who did not in any way need support.

Remember the "sixth" man bonus? Did that turn out as expected? Now you want to just rain AA down on whomever pays for Gold?

Remember the launch of mercenaries? How many clerics quit eq/sony for good? It just doesn't quite seem logical to me that mercenaries should be equivalent to fully aa'd players. Particularly when people are afk... as aforementioned.

My plea: Check the data, large portions of people who migrated from EQ to other flashy games have eventually come back to EQ. Retain them by continuing to listen to the community members. Continue to grow and learn from the knowledgeable player base, and put out substantive top quality material. (even if it means undoing server mergers and working on MLKJ day) Know that the vast majority of the loyal player base appreciates the work that has been done and the work that is envisioned in the future.

Response incoming shortly!

Ok I tried to scan most of the 96 pages of comments for my question. I may have missed it so forgive me if is have. Here is my question: Ok I have 4000aa plus on my toon right now. So lets say they happen to be the same 4000aa's your granting does that mean I will still only have 4000aa after the grant? or will it push my aa's up and I will have the new 4k added to my 4k for a total of 8k or so? If it pushes great if I end up with what I have now I have just wasted hours and hundreds of dollars for absolutely nothing right? This would not be good for me and all the folks that have worked many hours to achieve them.

So Piestro,
Considering the HUGE backlash of Posts by players in regards to basically all of this (I think like MAYBE 5% didn't care about the AA, and 1% about all the other classes getting hit WITH thee mages (seems mage is a universal to agree upon)), are there any thoughts you could maybe enlighten us as to what is going on? I mean, IF this all does go into effect, you are basically killing SK solo, Grp, and raid ability, Hampering rangers to not be the bow experts(which is a huge part of the class), Making the non-swarming(at least to the levels you are trying to describe in the original posts) Zerkers and rogues, and the other classes all becoming unbalanced and losing abilities that individualize those classes (clerics are just about equal to druid and shaman healing now, which is a Massive no no for lore of the class, as described in the write up of the class at character creation even).
What answers can you give about this? We'll hit 2k posts (99% of which is HATE mail basically) about this soon enough.

remember when to use luclin port spells you had to be on the moon already? Changing that was a great move. This stuff not so much. I'm all for catching up newbies, and i think you guys did that pretty good with increasing aa bonus. What is hard for new guys is user interface and all the content. Low levels you have many options. Some faster than others this can overwhelm someone very easily.

I've always though this the perfect fix for ALL those issues. But no...I'm sure there is some "code" issue that won't allow for such a thing.

You w

You would have the same 4k aa's but with the added benefit of the time you have had to use them. I know not much compensation in that, but that is how it stands.

Greetings,

We've gone ahead and made a few changes to our plan based on your feedback. Please go read our changes here and continue to let us know what you think.

Thanks,