Encouraging Players to Play in New Content ASAP

@Stewgottz; All you can really hope for at this point.

Personally, I'd like for them to be a little more transparent about what they are planning, but I am not surprised that they aren't. Seems like a pretty dramatic restructuring. So it will take time for the dust to settle. We just have to be patient and see what happens next.

I know this has been said before. All this trouble started when they messed with the exp. If you get 2 hours of gaming time per day average and get nothing for exp it's pointless to play EQ, hence my friends don't log in. It's not hard to understand. We used to do shards landing groups for the nightly grind before bed and quest on Saturday. It's not worth the time.

I agree it doesn't make logical sense to make more experience in older content. And if that's the way the game is trying to make its content broad/rich then it's going about it wrong. However, I don't agree all in-game wealth or value should come from the latest content. Why? Because a) There might not be enough content in a single expansion b) Players inevitably go back to older content for old times sake, so why not put a few (small) update-to-date quests/npcs/mobs/items/zones in old content to give them something to chew on while they're revisiting? If players have nostalgia, why not find a way to capitalize on it without disenfranchising your new(est) users? Can't there be a way to give some reward to old timers visiting old content while also not forcing or making new users feel like they have to too? It might be extra work to add some things to the old content, but if it's liked by old timers then it might encourage them to keep playing. If they keep playing, ti's $$$$ for you.

How about just encourage players to play? All I've seen in the last year or so is the exact opposite. Frankly, SOE/Daybreak deserves everything that has happened to them and this game and has no one to blame but themselves. There are far too many choices in the world now to be so obstinate.

This

RoF was an amazing expansion. It's sad to see it so empty.

Was the best expac made since Velious.

My guess is the way it went down was Sony management wanted EQ to look good as part of its sale of SOE so they said we want to see everyone in your new expansion. The severity of the RoF nerf doesn't make sense from a game perspective nor from a TDS expansions sale perspective... the hard nerf was meant to get everyone into TDS for whatever reason. Probably because the order was given from above to make the game look better as part of the sale.. I cant think of any other reason the nerf was so bad... it didn't just ensure you got the best exp from TDS it ensured that if you bought TDS you would get next to ZERO exp from RoF and back.

Yep, the exp nerf was really stupid. All it has done is lose them money.

Hope they at least have enough staff left to reverse the ROF exp nerf, so I can enjoy the last expansion before the servers are sunset.

I wouldn't reverse the exp nerf on RoF and earlier content completely.. maybe cut it in half?

Nerfs were never necessary before. I don't see why we would keep it, even partially. Illogical.

So I decided to do an experiment, because people say things like this. There is first off, something wrong with experience in RoF at this point.. beyond just the nerf. The puller gets exp while the rest of the group might not (at least as far as AA is concerned.) A group of 105s pulling gorals and cats, for 8 hours. The puller got 5 aa. The tank? Got less than 1.

8 hours for less than 1 aa on blues and light blues. Even 8 hours for 5 aa is astoundingly slow for mobs that are supposed to yield 'some' exp.

They just need to undo the whole thing and let us go wherever we want. who cares if I grind my AA in old content, I'll do new when I want to progress... besides.. I've finished all the new content already... and missions aren't worth the effort for gear.

If you do 1 mission a day, say Arx Mentis.. it will still only yield you one piece of t3 gear a month. That means you won't even finish your gear if you do a mission every day for an entire year. Since I assume group gear is supposed to be for the 'casual' player and not the raider (why would a raider invest that much time on their main when they could just raid and get gear?) Why is it designed to make it to where anyone who is not willing to play around 2 hours a day won't bother in the content.. but be forced there for xp anyway.. exp they are gonna have more difficulty handling because the gear is so rare...

I mean even if they wanted to gear up in the first zones.. the one in Tempest gives like 19 pieces of 8... they couldn't even gear up that way.

My main issue with the change, was they spent valuable dev time implementing it that could have been spent adding something new or fixing bugs. Because in another year RoF would be vacant anyways especially if they add another 5 levels.

One of the things companies like to do when they merge or buy a business is get rid of senior people where possible. That way they reduce or get off their books various benefit costs including the higher salaries these people tend to have.

I am so glad that I did not nerf myself by purchasing the next xpac. I have now maxed out AA on all 8 accounts and let them all go Silver but my main tank. Once he lapses at the end of the month I am done with new EQ until they lift this ridiculous ban on xp. I do not plan on leaving the game, I plan on starting at the start again and enjoying eq my way for the short time it is still around.

As for the OP, I should have known who posted this before I finished the first post. Devs listening to raiders talking like they have a clue about the group game has darn near killed the group game at times.

All in all it has been a fun ride! I would do it all again if I could and I am glad I have stuck with this game for so many years. I still hold a glimmer of hope that this new company will change this ridiculous nerf, will have the sense to not listen to BB and the outlandish ideas he proposes and will push us into a new dawn for EQ!

I've noticed the OP hasn't had a single post since the layoffs. (coincidence or am I reaching)

Should be simple to get us to play in the new content.

Make good content, with alot to see and do. See some successfull previous expansion (Kunark, Velious, RoF, HoT) just not expansions like Cotf, TDS, LoY.
I do not like HA personally, but I know alot of people who do. I prefer real dungeon crawling, and would love to see some real dungeons again. Lately everything seems so cookie cutter in zone design.

All,

I pop in every few weeks or so and catch up on posts. I made a post relating to making EQ more profitable and here was a quick summary: playable content, better grouping tools, better content, and the end of going back an lessening abilities.

Well it got me to thinking. If all these did suddenly get fixed, would I really be game to go all in again? I am not so sure for a couple of reasons.

1. My toons around 100 are all pretty much retired. I think that I visited two over the past year for about 5 minutes a piece.

2. I play on a new server without a friends network and have toons between 30 and 80.

3. Since I am behind in really old content, my playtime is not pushed to keep up. One week, I may play almost every day. Then next, not at all. There is no push and, it is relaxing.

4. In the past, a trust factor was built up. There was not a question about whether the expansion was going to be good. The "good" part was a given. The "fun" part was a given. The trust part is gone. If the next expansion was a "knock your socks off expac", I might not be there to see it.

5. Being a year out assuming a person stopped when TDS was released and 5 level plus behind current, why would they buy it? Based on the content from expansions going back to HOT, a lot of expansions did not address people out of the current. Note: I understand this is debatable. Take into account a group consisting of 2-3 PCs behind going through content without higher level help.

I know this reply is focused primarily on my own situation but could relate to many others if I am not in the minority. I thought about the above and keep coming to the conclusion that I probably would keep playing the way I am until caught up which would certainly not be in the next expansion meaning no money for the expansion and no paying sub(s). How to you address my situation getting players who left over the last two years back in the game?

Rykard

Yeah I think its a bit of a reach.... but food for thought....