Congratulations... I think? I guess? Maybe?

if (random(100)<GuildEgo)) { PlayerHealth=0 }

IMO it's more of an issue with the schedule and sudden changes at SOE. T3 (and probably T4 too) was supposed to go live on Feb 27 - when the portals got completed. But the big internal changes ruined all their plans. So then we got this hastened half-beta and not enough time to do proper testing. Only like 3 or 4 guilds got invited to test these raids with the devs (I know ROI and MS did, and who else?). We walked into the PoS raid on Beta on our own with 42 people and almost beat it 1st try while totally unaware of the mechanics and failing all possible emotes. So then of course on Live with 54 we 1-shot it. But the way it's tuned I'm pretty sure we'd still beat it 1st try on Live with 54 even without seeing it before. When a whole wave of adds can be tanked by 1 knight without deflection and the 'punishment' for a failed emote is some AE that barely registers on your hp bar - you don't need any pre-knowledge, can just walk in and win.

There isn't much else that can be said here really. The top end is upset about the ease of the raids, and yet they seem to have also had the most opportunity to not only have advance knowledge of how to beat them but also ample opportunity to give feedback to the devs about them. Beta ran for a month. People got the raids unlocked via the partisan quests in an afternoon when live so it probably did not take that long to unlock them in beta even if not given head of line privileges to test the raids with a dev present. If they did not take your advice into consideration, than it did not align with their vision of the target audience of the game.What can you do at that point? Its doubtful they will make them vastly harder later on. Is there even precedent for that?

I am gonna stick to my guns that the only way to make these raids be challenging for everyone is to introduce the unpreventable random chance failure mechanic.

I just wish they would be more consistent from expansion to expansion and even within expansions (now). The pendelum shouldnt swing so wildly from push over easy any half decent guild can beat it to good luck with this, maybe 10 guilds will get through it. Most EQers have short term memories. Whatever it was like for the past 3 monthes is how it has always been. Would cut down the complaining about raids from both sides.

How embarassing for you all. (where is Jace Hall to tell you that you all just got pwned?) Kudos to Elidroth and the rest of the team for actually producing extra content (for no additional costs mind you) and trying something new with this staggered release, which I'm sure does help out the Dev process. I think it makes sense.

One question for any EQ developer:

In your personal opinion, for the average gamer, how long should s/he be in SoF before they are finished with the group content? Do you feel this content should last three months? Two months? One week?

Obviously it varies by individual. But I would image you guys had some sort of idea or thoughts as to how long Joe Schmo and Suzy Q should be playing in SoF, assuming they have completed RoF content...

Horrible business philosophy too. +5 Elidroth for being true to your word on this.

Ouch. With Absor gone, I guess it's up to Elidroth to do the SMASH thing now.

I am pretty sure that somebody from SOE mentioned that the new zones were supposed to open when the portals were completed. My calculations were Feb 26 but they said Feb 27... Time to re-watch those podcasts and re-read the posts.

Aristo posted something about scheduling a vacation for after SOF beta but it was pushed back and he was still going to be on vacation during most of the beta. So Eli saying it wasn't pushed back is misleading maybe the date wasn't Feb 27th, but it surely was not suppose to be April 17th.

It gave us 4 Brell Shadows ( shawl bits

Oh yeah, thanks. Here's Aristo confirming that there was indeed a serious change in the schedule (no NDA for SoF Beta, so we can quote from the Beta forum, right?):

So umm...

Elidroth tries to smash YOU, but YOU riposte!

Wow

ELIDROTH SMASH!!!

You just got pwned Axx!


(For the record, Axxius is a .. ummm... necro, and any hostile action taken towards him should be in the form of a class nerf, he is not a wizard at all)

Any action taken toward him should be an increase to zerker dps as punishment to his class

Not so fast! See above.

LOL at the EQ is hard comment or ever was hard. If your good at playing games EQ was only hard for the first 10 to 20 levels while you figured out how the game worked. Any game where a person is able to play multiple characters at the same time and advance falls into the category as one of the easiest games to play. Spare me with the mentality that EQ ever provided any challenge to someone that is good at playing games. It is a fun game and that is all it's ever been. As for challenging the only thing challenging is getting groups of people to work together. Outside of that EQ has never been hard or a hard game to play.

Amorcen

+1 for making it so obvious you never played original EQ because that WAS HARD. 10mil plat says you didn't play until after GOD which WAS impossibly hard. Maybe I remember wrong, but I don't believe any guild beat GOD when it was current content.

If I had a guess, Aristo planned his vacation about six months or more ago since most sane people don't do it on the fly. If SoE is like most companies out there vacation times are planned at least six months out if not a year. changed in the time like it always does. Regardless of what people think, multi-billion dollar enterprises are not run by idiots, hence why they are multi-billion dollar enterprises. If you think some bean counter at SoE isn't keeping tabs on EQ you probably don't live in reality much (that a general statement, not an attack).

And a month either way isn't a serious change in schedule. A serious change in schedule would have taken place if they had let this ride out till T4 was before releasing it which might have been preferable to some of us.

atleast some one got them... the rest of us didnt

Haha I've been around awhile. (Did retire for a bit though) Sorry that you apparently aren't any good at playing video games. No EQ has never been hard as a game. Time consuming, yes, but not hard at all. I understand you may think this game is/was hard but if your good at playing video games and played enough games, you should have probably come across more challenging games. EQ makes my list as one of the most enjoyable games I have played but doesn't come close to ever being one of the hardest games I have played. Try again.

Amorcen

"average gamer" is like "middle class"....most people believe that's them, whether they play 1 hour a week or 8 hours a day. Whether they play leading edge content or grind 20 alts 3 expansions back. So, any question using such a poorly defined term is pretty much a trick question, and the devs are smart enough not to fall for it.