Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Good point. I have 3 accounts. My main play buddy also has 6. Most of my guildies have at least two. One guy has ten.
So, even if 2 is the 'average' you can never get more than 50% of 'account holders' posting - assuming, indeed, that each person only posts as 'themselves' and not each account.

That makes the 5-10% posting more like 10-20% of the people who play - a more statistically significant sample

I know the game is 15yrs old, or very soon to be. Seriously, why are you trying to kill it? I can understand nerfing some swarm class's from a PL perspective. EQ is one of the few games out there that is semi mentally stimulating and at times a challenge. It's why people come back, see friends and try to have fun in the process. If you keep doing what your doing, you're only driving people away. Auto granting 4k worth of AA is complete BS. People worked hard for those AA and those achieves that went with them, now your are taking that away as if it were nothing. Merc's put the death blade in the group scene and caused a lot of cleric mains to quit playing their clerics or quit the game altogether. Instead of trying to kill it, how about trying to revive it, do some freaken advertising and try to bring new players to the game. Hell you might even revive the group scene. We as a community have slowly been watching EQ die away for the past 7-8 years with much sadness.

You're worried about swarm kiting / PL'ng .. fine, leash the damn mobs so that they only go a set distance from their spawn point. Set a min group or solo level for mass kill abilities.. i.e headshot or decap ect ..doesn't work if there is more then a 5-10 level spread in the group. Change the min group ratio from 30 lvl max to 10 levels.. there goes a lot of PL right there.

My point I guess, is for gods sake DON'T FREAKEN WELFARE EQ like wow does with their welfare epics and crap. Takes all the challenge and achievement satisfaction right out of the game and makes it no longer fun.

I know I haven't posted before, never really felt the need too. Now I do though, I have been playing EQ since july of 2000, I may not have been around for the original launch; but I was there for every following expansion since then.

This goes to your answer to the question. Lowering the AA cost was one alternative, there have been dozens. I have not seen a reply to my suggestions yet, which would allow for some of those hurdles to be reached, this would in fact work on a psychological level, as they would still be gaining many many AA's that will help their characters, while keeping other AA's, that are important for branching off on play styles, to be left alone; allowing for players to receive that feeling of accomplishment for attaining them themselves. You said certain AA are needed? but you are giving ALL. That's NOT a solution. That's going WAY overboard. People brought up the possibility of XP back to OMM and missions, which would help the issue of gaining AA, you said it doesn't work, however you are GIVING 4k+ away? That type of logic makes no sense. the XP on those missions could be capped and worked to be better inline with things, You've done it before.

All I have asked for was you to look at my proposal and get back to me, give me reasoning why something might or might not work and I would go back to the drawing board. I am Offering the ability to get constructive criticism from a player that is ACTUALLY trying to meet you halfway. its been like 50 pages and still nothing saying that you would review it, and get back to me; least that would be something.

so what are the exact changes going to happen with HS because there so much crap being spread around

People who get the AA will probably be more confused than people who buy them the old fashion way which requires you to think what you're buying and assess their value.

When they had that event in Tera Online where they gave you a lvl 51 toon, I got frustrated. I did not understand anything about my class, I hated it, I was so lost.

Still in favor of the AA. But ppl will be more confused.

So, why not potions of AA's. You can even make them where we can trade them and get them for friends. I don't know 500 or 1000 doesn't matter if it is 10. You can do the same thing for your Heroic toon, buy a potion for a few and be up to snuff with your toons. It is pay to play, and this will not mean auto grant for ever toon we make unless we want it, just code we can not use it over x number of aa's. More money so many seem to want the aa's, and 15 dollars for 8 toon to 4k aa's seems pretty cheap the way it is. Sell them for 15$ each and let us give them to anyone we want.

I have a question about the logic behind many of the posts saying to just go gold for a month for the AA grant and then go back to silver.

So you have lots of AAs now.

But isn't most decent gear for levels 85+ prestige? So a silver toon above 85 is still going to be very weak isn't it? Maybe ok for an afk melody bot or something but beyond that I would think non-gold above 85 would be pretty pointless unless you just want to smash grey stuff in old zones.

Have there been any revisions to the changes being made that were initially posted in this thread? Too many pages to scan through to check now.

Try being a rogue and going lfg to get groups. Even in a large raiding guild, there are no groups.. most everyone either boxes or solos.

Refer to the first 6 posts here:
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...-for-gold-members-and-ability-changes.207363/

Then the first post here:
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...the-february-update-developer-updates.207587/

I have 5 accounts. Maybe I should post under all 5 of them...

That's what I don't get... these mountains are the only reason why EQ was able to retain players longer than any other game. Become another easy MMO and loose what makes EQ unique?

Can you even come up with another reason for people to stick around for a decade or more? EQ is was hard and it takes took a while to get to the top. That is was its unicity.

If you remove the difficulty only one thing will make people stay: a LOT of new (and good) content!

How many new mob models and/or textures did CoTF bring? One, two? How is that even possible?
I bet many would be willing to provide about 500 times more for free. I would.

But they will be nerfed cause um ? So far from the devs it boils down to think of the noobs! I imagine that in the same hue an cry as think of the children. An something rouges do that causes server lag... massive strike is the only thing that could come close an even then I would question these reports.
I have a 100 rogue almost 7k AA. Some times it takes two assassinates to kill a light blue. Can not imagine the agro it will cause on level 99s. I can imagine the rez tho afterwards.

Not every wants to be lv 100. 10k aa raiding end game stuff with the epeen crew. They want groups to be promoted at all levels with old content being a viable option to obtain (the tasks!!!) level relevant armour/weapons.

They want ways that they can group and get decent xp with a much wider level range of other players (player class/race shrouds works)

The forced race to end game level/aa just makes eq the exact same as every other pay to win MMO out there.

Because not everyone rushes to the last page in the book just to get finished! Its the reason they have put the AA grant in as a toggle.

I personally love the lower game, it is more relaxing and I can afford to make mistakes as I won't get 1 rounded like I do at level 100.

Was thinking the same thing

People have grown up too Mozzarella, many people who played EQ, 5-10 years ago, now are in college, have a job, partner, kids.

Most don't have time to grind or camp an aug for half the day.

So... what you are saying, Piestro, is that every class that can swarm will be nerfed so the game has ZERO chance of swarming?

It will never be zero. Reduced, but not zero.

I'd like to point out that World of Warcraft has over 7 million subscribers, and is the easiest game I've ever played to obtain max level and great gear. It's doable in 1 month or less.