Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

I am having augmented frenzy flashbacks

Responding to the question:
"What about Heroic Characters? Are they going to start with maxed AA?"

Given a suggestion by an SOE employee that a lower level character focus on leveling rather than getting AA (anticipating the AA grant no doubt) and that suggestion appearing not to take into account Heroic Characters and the two seemingly conflicting quotes above - at least for a level 70 character on a Gold account with say 2500 AA's...

I hope that someone might conclude that the grant could happen, Heroic Characters could follow, and they would not, at least for AA's prior to UF, "have to do something to earn it, that requirement will be leveling."

isn't it time to give players a heads up rather than risk them being misled?????

Brand New Gold Account:
Will they be getting 1 "free" Heroic Character for whatever you charge for the latest expansion/getting started?

Existing Gold Account:
Will they get 1 free Heroic Character creation/upgrade of an existing character

Station Cash
At this time is the sale of Heroic Character creation/upgrades anticipated?

Players considering starting EQ may or may not want to waste time/enjoy the game doing things that could be superceded in a month.

Existing characters on Gold Accounts may want to "focus on leveling"/not focus on leveling, buy an experience potion and earn AA's 600-700 save it until the AA grant and/or Heroic Characters go live...

And everytime a players asks a question like should I start EQ now or should level or AA or come back to EQ three weeks from now

when an SOE employee answers it's not clear if he's answering given the current situation on the ground or carefully taking into account the way things will be a month from now without giving away what's not been made public.

People want to know what they should actually do in plain English rather than evasive marketing speak that could potentially mislead them. Can you look into whether SOE can afford to be more forthcoming than it has so far?

There are better ways to go about it besides " Do this or I quit". Half of these people or more probably won't even be adversely effected by the changes. It seems very blown out of proportion by people who don't bother to research the whole issue. Granted, this is the Internet where no one has time for logical behavior.

How about granting those players who "earned" all their aa's the hard way a different version of Lessons of the Devoted, make it last say... 5 more minutes per 1k aa over the auto granted cap if they had them before this change goes in?

Is there a reason why the AA grant the way it is? Why cant you let people spend the points the way they want to? im pretty damn sure most rangers wont need Healing based AAs, or bards wanting spell casting expertise, or paladins with Innate Regen, or any hybrid wanting Hybrid Spell Research/Songwriting and have all those count tward the AA exp boost limit.

Or ANYONE wanting the Innate Str/Sta/ect AAs in the General tab due to Defiant armor maxing out stats in the late 40s and they stay that way even with Planar Power/Stats all the way up to... hell I dont remember not being stat capped at any time even at 85 (my highest level). The list can also go on with undesirable AAs, packrat, innate lung capacity, see invis, hell even identify.

And another thing is, Im probably in a small group of folks who took the time to catch up and in the area where you are boosting levels/AA to. I am a level 85 Paladin with a little under 4k AA, will this boost benefit me at all, or was catching up for the past year just bad timing resubscribing on my part?

The best times in EQ are really when lots of people are together. I actually think this thread is cool, because there are lots of people together in one thread and it actually feels like a community again.

If there will be lots of lvl 85+ together because of AA changes getting them there faster, then I think the AA changes are good.

The most fun I had in EQ all have to do with hubs and many ppl being together:

-CoM in Kunark, lots of ppl in the zone, tons of fun
-LDON, a hub with lots of ppl together
-DoN, hubs with lots of ppl together
-the bug in DoD of the MM wolf mission, tons of ppl in undershore together
-OOM missions in PoK, tons of ppl together

It's not about just finding a group for newbees and non-newbees, having 4 ppl in a zone instead of 40, sucks. Grouping wtih the same people all the time, sucks. Grouping wtih the same guildies all the time, sucks. Soloing all the time, sucks. Massive Multiplayer online game. The most fun I had in RIFT was in the beginning when we did PUG Rift raids with 100+ people running all over the zones in an open world.

If the AA can get many ppl together at lvl 85+ it's good. Yes I grinded out my AA, and no I don't care that other ppl get them for free, I would much rather see more people in zones.

1. what class do u play I am sure u are just reading and u don't play a class that is detrimentally impacted by this change new member post cause on the most part I just take it on the chin but this is not the case this time decapitation was broken a whole year after its initial release aa's I spent during that time for nothing while rangers rouges abilities worked I don't play multiple account at ounce this is how I am able to play everquest since the social dynamic of ever quest is gone where log ago there was nothing you could do in everquest with out lfg now I don't think many even remember wheat /lfg is anymore even if I play an alt I can spend multiple hours lfg but as soon as I log in on my zerker I don't require a group

Ok so what about the fact that there will be many more people now you can group with at that level, with the right AA.

Innate AAs are needed at top level. No, not at level 60 with your 255 cap or whatever it is, but at 100 raid geared people aren't capped.

They're granting all your AAs whether you need them or not, whether you use them or not.. Whats the big deal? Who cares if you don't need them, you got them now. Does that change anything?

A lot of people are in your shoes. I'm sure it'll help you gain some AAs that you overlooked (e.g. 30 ranks of regen or whatever). But it will mostly help for leveling up an alt or a boxed character. It will help you find groups and it will help others find groups. Everybodies character will be a bit stronger. I have a 95 shaman I powerleveled (the legit way, single pulling tank and spank) who only has like 900 AAs.. That will help me a ton.

Everything you do in MMOs is pretty obsolete sooner or later.. Just have fun. Those AAs you earned got you to where you are at now.

okay now thats sad now those abilities work better but warriors still get the boot u need to make it fair now that they can decap headshot and assinate to lvl 99.

Warrs sheols heroic blade should be on the same timer as rampage.

Part of the reason /LFG doesn't work anymore is also because you never had any idea if you were inviting a person wtih 30 or 3000 AA.

For years and years we've been rather constantly bombarded by the assertion "catching up" was not a challenge to be met by players but an unfair advantage held by those who played longer or more. Drop the flag requirements, we're "catching up". Increase the AA experience, we're "catching up".

Now players who were catching up are somehow translated into level 80 Veterans with 3500AA that I struggled to get. How dare SOE let others clilck a button an get level 85 and 4500 AA!!

I've got to say, I'm somewhat delighted by this turn of events. People responding in the poll - help them catch up. And now posting in the forums omg we didn't really mean help them catch up!! Hehehe. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Grouping, soloing, moloing. That does not matter to me much, but auto granting AAs like this makes me worry. With everyone past the AA exp bonus stage, how long is it going to take to play catchup again 85-100, and the respective AAs.. and even if I do finish before the next xpac comes out what happens if they give another grant? It sounds like a neverending circle of why play now when I can play another MMO for awhile and come back here and still be superpowered with little to no effort?

[quote="The same holds true in real life.
For example if you are earning a good wage for a reasonable job and you are perfectly happy with everything, suddenly you find out somebody else gets more money for less work. Why should you be unhappy? Your income and your life hasn't changed. Stop comparing yourself to others. Jealousy is a waste of time.
So with EQ we should simply worry about our own game and whether we are happy with what we can do ourselves.
?[/quote]

A good analogy, but misses the point.
If I've worked for a company for a decade, then I expect to be suitably rewarded (assuming I'm any good).
If a new person comes along and gets the same reward for doing half my workload, I'm going to feel unrewarded, unappreciated and, if I'm any good, will look for a new job where I am rewarded/appreciated.

Piestro talks about doing stuff for these new/returning players, but seems to be taking for granted that those of us who've paid subs for 12 years (in my case) also need to feel that we have something 'extra' for that. And giving away what we worked hard for just doesn't do that.
I didn't like the 'scaling AA' reward but it's better than wholesale giving it away.

If that's what 'has' to happen, OK. But your old timers (ok, some/many of them) feel they want something too. Not to feel that whatever **** you throw at us will be OK because we've always been here and always will be. Because we won't.

I still miss the players who left when you fundamentally nerfed this or that class - they haven't, in the main, come back.
Any business model shows it's easier to keep cusomers than get new ones. So that's what needs to happen.
We all like different things in EQ; not all of us are modtivated by loot/xp/raids/group game/ability to solo or whatever. With this stick, however, you're hitting a broad range of people - so let's see some creativity to reward those of us who have been 'on the payroll' for a long time.
Personally, that would be somewhere to put my AA. I don't care if it's 100AA for 1hp. I want to spend AA on something, because right now I've run out of stuff to do
(I would usually be getting AA on the alt army, but I'm not going to bother if they'll all be at 4k AA in a few weeks with no input from me)

.........what? Shining Armor/Bastion has no damage counter on it. The buff is permanent / provides unlimited healing for it's 7-10 minute duration. You must be thinking of the Vie line, which is a 10% melee mitigation to a maximum ### of hitpoints, then fades. It's also a group buff version, whereas Shining has always been single target. They both stack, but only one provides mitigation bonus (in this case they are the same, so Shining takes precedence, and when it fades the Vie will take over).

The change will be for the Shining line to only add a certain number of heal counters and then all it does is provide the 10% damage mitigation for the remainder of its timer.

Don't update headshot , assassinate, decap, unless you make it a proc similar to what wizards have all the time on every mob, including raid targets.

Else it will just be another problem that prevents us from getting the dps upgrades melees need to compete with wizard burstained in the raid game!

Why do you think that there will be more grouping?

They can obviously market AA with expansions and, after the fact state that they are not working as intended years later..changing game play years in the making.

Why should I play when I can wait, be given thousands of AAs and buy loot off of another Heroic Adventure NPC on some future expansion. I can wait without paying, without playing....get to the same point!

Disappointed,

Rykear

Actually I don't totally disagree with you. As I pointed out with a picture in another post, in Vindictus, the MMO, you get granted AA (called AP) points every hour, regardless if you log on or not.

But since you never get any levels from them, you actually want to log on to see what you can do wtih your new AP points.
\
I really do not know if offering Heroic LVL 85 characters is a good idea though.

But as to your point, yes I tend to log onto Vindictus more casually, but I actually like that. I like the fact I can not play for 2 weeks and not be far behind my friends.

Thank you for making my decision for me, Now that Decap is ruined......Let me explain

Having Decap work for only insignifgant mobs is a Novelty, I know of not one lvl 100 zerker that does any kind of "swarming" or mass killing of any mobs that give them ANYTHING resembling the experienceexploited by your "Beam Kiting classes". Of course it wont....because level 88 and below mobs are not what they kill to gain real xp or aa, or even quest in zones with mobs that low. You just took the small amount of "fun" Zerkers had and tossed it in the toilet.

Your Proposed NEW Decap, will now make INSTANT DEATH Aggro a constant issue while raiding.
Did you even consider the aggro issues Zerkers have in CURRENT high level content? No, i didnt think so. So now....My WONDERFUL 15min REFRESH FADE TIMER....is also worthelss...

Piestro said: ↑

“We've pulled a few out of the auto-grant now (like subtlety). Please let us know about any more that would create a negative effect on your characters.”

Pull Innate line of AA's like Strength, Stamina, Agility, Cold, Fire, Magic and the likes out as with defiant armor and equipment they are wast of AA's as you will pass what ever cap increase they will grant. These are not AA's i would buy unless i had all the rest .. exceptions being innate Run and Regeneration, Metabolism and Corruption Protection.

O and last question when is this all supposed to take place in February is not a date. February of 2013, 2014, 2020??