Well i had to deal with this back when i came back to play FTP.. it sucked bad. I was gone long enough that all the group gear (including the FTP group gear) was better than the raid gear i had on. I was broke as a joke and had to more or less start over naked. It is always best to have a back up set of FTP gear at all times. Just in case you happen to leave and come back FTP one day.
It actually stung me to learn eq gen chat has turned into the equal of wow trade chat. With all its irrelevant perversions, and rudeness. Eq was always known for its mature and helpful community. I blame ftp for increasing the number of trolls. I know this is old news. Yet even in the last year its gotten worse. I know, if you don't like it don't read ,and yet with eq one hardly ever had to offer such a tidbit of wisdom before. That is the sad thing. At least...not when it comes to this sort of thing. I don't mean opinions but out and out talk, like Regan in the exorcist.
I remember loio, dreadlands, karnors, nexus, and dawnshroud chat back in 2002 when I started. No, general chat is not worse today than its predecessors were before ftp, chat channels, or any other addition to this game someone might point at. Blaming the qualith of general chat on ftp players says more about you than about ftp players. I group with and talk to ftp-ers several time a week. They, as well as most of the rest of my guild, do not waste time in general chat precisely because it sucks. You might want to follow their example.
Yes it would be nice if we could blame FTP on General chat but sadly we cannot. Since they cant even post to it. On my server it comes down to the same 7 or 8 people most of the time that stir things up. But General chat can get really bad and turn into a cesspit of discussion. I think it should be moderated and if not all the time on occasion or even have someone review a chat log of general on a daily basis and hand out bans after the fact. Would it take too many resources to do this? I don't know to be honest.
I don't know about grand fathered silver accts but regular FTP accounts don't get a choice they cant go on general chat unless that changed in the last month or so.
Any account that was subscribed before the changes to silver account status will be grandfathered into silver status. I have an account that was subscribed for one month back in '05 and is silver with full access to general chat and any other chat channel. So, basically anyone that's ever played at all before can log in for free and chat it up.
I don't waste time in it ether to be honest, the thing is its also used for other reasons besides chat people list things, advertise very high ticket and sometimes rare bazaar items, ask questions and other things so I do look at it from time to time. As for what it says about me, I care about the game. I don't want it to fail. Traditionally in many games alot of ftp players but by no means all, don't even play the game, they get a free account and do strange things, they would not even think of buying anything.Mostly kids. On a percentage base more tend to troll than subscribers but this is not always true, look at Warcraft every ones a subscriber and its troll city. Mostly because of the type that gathers there' and the quest text, lore, style and community attracts. I guess I always expected a higher standard from eq. Mostly because I think so highly of it, to me as a gamer its kind of sacred. The holy grail of mmorpg you might say. I'm horribly worried about the direction it might try to take and destroy itself trying to be trendy instead of capitalizing on its unique nature, in which case it cant compete and it will fail for sure. That is obvious. It cant be somethings its not without ultimately being another game. I just want eq to show its best face right now.
A lot being said here. I do think F2P needs a few tweaks. They should do a change in membership. A f2p similar to the current one, AA cap increase would be nice from1k to 3k. Then redo silver, a 5 dollar subscription and you get j5 mercs, rk2 spells. 10k aa all augs up to 95 are not prestige and all group gear is available (contingent on your expansion), all raid gear is prestige, and 8 slot max on characters(unless you buy marketplace slots), with this version of silver you could have a 105 character with at least 10k aa and a full set of group gear and good augs, rk2 spells and that j5 merc to help you out for only 5 bucks a month. That's a pretty good deal, and its only for everquest, not all access. I think this would bring some players back to the game and open the market for new players since its not a huge amount to pay out and you can really experience the game. I think those accounts that have been grandfathered into silver should hold that status and get the perks that would come with it. I feel this would be a way for dbg to bring silver back and put 3 levels of access to the game again, but this time making silver more desirable to the masses. Just my thoughts. I have 2 all access accounts and 3 ftp accounts. I know I'd pay the 5 bucks a month on the other 3 to be able to play them with less restrictions.
Holly crow batman you dug up a 2 year old thread. I am impressed As someone who has multiple ftp accounts and multiple all access accounts I think things are working just fine. I wish they would add the rank II spell unlocker back to the market and I think general chat should be unlocked for everyone. Its pretty hard for a new player who is just testing the waters to get into the game if they cant communicate with anyone. As far as the augs go if you do your research and do questing you can fill every slot 7 on a ftp toon and there is even one slot 13 that you can get via quest. T1 group gear from EOK and TBM is better than COTF raid gear. Add to this if you farm enough plat to buy a krono you can burn it on your ftp toon and farm AA's which you get to keep forever. Honestly I think its not a bad gig for free entertainment.
lol well I was bored and looking through the posts. I feel that the base ftp is fine, its a good starting place at any rate and yes I know you can get a 30day sub and be all sparkly with autogrant.. I'm just trying of offer a place for that silver access again, I really do think that bringing it back for such a small sub with those perks, yes general chat would be there, would help with player relations and help to bring those that feel all access is too much and ftp isn't enough back and boost our population some.
I guess I cant argue against a silver or mid level access plan again. I think it might get people like myself to spend more money on some of our ftp accounts that are used primarily as mules and buff bots and also provide a cheaper option for people who cant afford all access but feel completely useless as ftp and leave. Anything that retains players is good for the game.
When did they remove the spell rank 2 unlocker from the marketplace? And why? Also, General Chat is unlocked to everyone after a certain period of time, or did they change that too? Free players just cannot join player made chat channels I believe. I never did understand why they dropped Silver; it made absolutely no sense to me to remove it. As it is now, there are certain things that can only be used by those who have silver, like apprentice teirs 3-5 of mercs.
Free to play accounts can only join NewPlayers. At some point the powers that be decided that rank II spells weren't something they wanted non-paying customers to have access to. I can somewhat understand this as you could have quite a nice buff/heal bot at level 105 only having used one Krono to boost their AAs and the spell unlocker to let them cast rank IIs up to TDS.
Not sure when the rank II was removed but last time I checked which was a couple weeks ago it was not an option. Actually none of the upgrades were options such as the AA upgrade. This has happened before and then they randomly return. General will never unlock for a true ftp player. If you try to /join general you get a message "You must be a silver member to join channels other than the newplayer channel" Either way they are missing a chance at making some extra money. I have a couple buff bots I would love to buy the rank II spell upgrade on. Also if they released expansions with new buff spells I would buy the expansion on these toons. Rarely is a ftp account ever a freeloader account or at least not for me.
I am thinking that this is a bug which had not previously been pointed out then and not intended, because it doesn't make any sense. That's odd, I could have sworn that after a certain level, if they had the auto-join General channels option checked that it would put them into General. Maybe they changed it; or fixed it.
Yeah I tried it with one of my 105 buff bots who has always been ftp. He has bought expansions so I could buy the newest spells and bought some market place crap on him but he has never had an all access plan or used a krono. When I tried to join general I got the message above. I think general should just be unlocked for everyone. Like I said I cant even imagine being a new player trying out the game and talking in new player. It would make me think that nobody plays the game which for some might cause them to quit before they ever give the game a try. I scroll back through some times at the end of the night on my ftp toons and its rare for anyone to ever respond to someone in new player chat. If I happen to catch someone asking a question in new player I respond but I rarely am ever active on my buff bots to see someone use the channel.
The AA upgrade and the Rank II upgrade disappeared last October. No response has been made as to why or if they are returning. The chat thing is confusing because if you use a grandfathered silver or gold account and start a new character you will automatically be in newplayer and general until level 20 then the game takes away newplayer. But you can still be in newplayer anytime you want you just need to join that channel like any chat channel. PW is newplayer. duh. If you start a free account you will never have access to general chat. Which I agree really stifles it since all the guide events are put in general and tons of other stuff. I auto join new player on my paid accounts just to try and help the folks who are on free accounts and so I don't have to scroll thru my ftp chat on my boxes.
Free to play strategy: Build 2 sets of gear and augs one set prestige one set non-prestige I have a lot of fun tracking down the best combo of gear sets. If you are like me you'll sub the accounts on and off at times, like for x2 events then let them expire. using this strategy you'll have no issues with spells etc. because you can save them up as free and scribe them while subbed.
