Jumpstart option - new toons level 65

I think the large AA amounts for doing Hot Zone tasks is the way to go with this. Leveling is easy it is the AA grind which wears players down. I'd even go as far as saying add AA's to completing early level achievements, but not retrospective, add 100 or so per achievement which are allowed to go over the cap.

Just don't put such large AAs on current quests as those in the end game run out of things to do far too quickly.

How can you expect others to take your demands that they take the long, grinding route through leveling and AA accumulation seriously, when you're not even willing to set an example by take the significantly less long, grinding route of reading through a mere 8 page thread? Actions speak louder than words, and your actions state you are fully in favour of jumping in the late thread/game without grinding through the earlier content/pages, so I'm glad you're in agreement with the OP, even if you don't realize it yet.

I have found that with limited time to play the early levels of the game are some of the most enjoyable. But I can still find other low use even if they are alts to interact with. Skipping to 65 would just smush this down further and make it so the game had even less casual players and even more compressed at the top....which is of course the core issue. I guess some things are too broke to fix and I don't thing adding a skip the easy part option as fixing that IMHO. As for AA abilities I'm more concerned that the progression elements and conflicts (and dead end abilities) get fixed than the ease of earning them be revamped.

Right. Because playing the game and reading forums are exactly the same thing.

Same basic premise regardless of how you feel about it. You want to skip ahead to where everyone is already, but you hadn't read through the whole forum. You can't bash people for it when you're doing it one way or another.

You're right, they aren't the same thing. Reading eight pages on a forum takes the space of maybe half an hour if you want to be thorough about it. Going from level 1-80 and racking up over a thousand AA can take months. It takes a lot of gall to accuse people of being lazy for not doing the latter when you can't show enough integrity of spirit to do the former.

If playing EQ was as "exciting" as reading its forums, nobody would play it. I enjoy spending months of my time in the game. And yet I refuse to spend half an hour reading through this thread. Didn't think anybody would seriously compare the "integrity" here, but apparently some people are more confused than I thought. Here's a little something that should blow your mind if you really believe in what you've just said here: I quit reading this thread! Now go ahead and project that onto the game and see where your logic takes you.

I think the idea of having a starting level of anything above 1 is crazy. I understand some of the other arguments but I think half of this game's appeal and the fun factor is the fact that you can find sooo many place to go and experience while you're leveling. Solusek's Eye, The Ruins of Old Paineel. Why let people skip past the fun dungeons just to get closer to raiding level? Social aspects occur at all levels and there are shrouds available so why is there even a discussion based on that? Also, it doesn't take weeks or months to get to lvl 80, it takes DAYS. I was gone for 6 years came back and made new characters, within a week I was lvl 70 with a few hundred AAs. And that wasn't even power leveling like some players would do for their friends coming back or coming to the game for the first time.

Alright, let's see where it takes us: If the long, lonely EQ grind to levels where stuff actually happens is like your experience with this thread, what would the game be like? Well, it would probably be a very top-heavy game, where an overwhelming majority of the the population is high level, having camped there for quite a while, and of the few people who are below level 80, a majority of them are just 'passing through' as they're alts and guildies being power-leveled so they can get to the fun stuff. It would probably be a game with a dwindling population as any genuinely new blood, and any old-blood who have been gone long enough to lose their old connections, come in, see the mountain they have to climb to find anything approaching 'fun', and turn right around and leave.

... oh wait.

Now while we're at it, let's go back to the topic of integrity and consistency in character. You posted in this thread. You posted something which had already been stated multiple times in the thread, but you had no idea because you didn't take the time to read through the thread. And why not? Because it wasn't fun for you. You had the choice between slogging through the thread the long way, or skipping over it to get to the fun bits. I'm guessing if you didn't have this option, if the option to reply only opened after you read every other post in this thread, you would never have taken the time, and never gotten to the end so you could reply.

Yet you cannot see the irony in the fact that you so self-righteously demand that others take the long, boring, grinding route in game, yet the only reason you actually take the time to deliver this haughty proclamation, one which many before you have already done and which you are adding nothing new towards, is because you happily took the option to skip over the long, boring, grinding content.

So if you want anyone else in this thread taking your suggestions seriously, try and think about how your actions impact whatever message you're trying to get across.

Wow Djinnkitty are you saying content that someone has never seen is the long boring grind? Get over yourself, when you hit level 80 or 70 even everything slows way down, who wants to spend 10 hrs playing before they gain one level, the high levels are the levels where nothing happens. Atleast if they start from lvl 1 those first 10 hrs are actually productive, lots of levels new skills and fun new exciting places. I see the point you are trying to make to him, but holy crap you come off like a self righteous who thinks that nothing but the top end matters, EQ has over 300 zones, skipping to 80 you might as well delete 90% of the damn game. Now I know it'll be tough but you have to pull your head out of that lightless hole its in and get some reality going on and remember that EQ isn't just 10 or 20 levels and then raiding, there is a HUGE world that new players have never seen and most old players haven't gone through in years, friends of old players starting at lvl 1 might give the old players just the excuse they need to make a new character and actually enjoy the old content again with a friend like it used to be.

Pot...meet kettle...

Your argument is invalid as I am not a piece of cookware.

You keep telling yourself that.

You're right because the cookware apparently understands the statement.

Totally in agreement. The truth is, most of those who would take advantage are all the ones pling class, after class up anyway, a practice I find useless. And if they are truly new players, let them level their toons so they actually learn to play the game.
PS, didn't they already have some option for start a friend, and they could start at 5X + 50aa? Most I knew who took advantage of that were all boxers.

After reviewing all the arguments and ideas I am starting to like one suggested in a few forms earlier in the thread. How about beginning at level 50 there were 10 AA awarded each level with an additional amount each 10 levels so that when someone reached 100 they would automatically have 1000-2000 with extra grind beyond the slower high levels. People could still do more AAs but wouldn't autatically have to divert to get basic things covered. Just an idea in support of the idea.

Even if it helped boxers, what would be the trouble with that?

Regardless, it would be great if they worked on the lower level game, but after almost a decade they still really haven't so what is the chance of them changing all of a sudden?

I've just came back after quit during PoP.
Levelled a few character 1-70.
Levelling hasn't been this easy ever before. Its really fast and you also learn to play your new character while doing it. So there you go no need for another tutorial.
The only thing I would recommend developers look at is how fast is the actual skill advancement as I was constantly levelling too fast for my skills to catch. My new bard was a complete pain to level skills. I actually had to leave him with EQ on for around 30-40 hours afk to catch up with skills which imo is overkill. Same trouble is with caster defence skills

I stopped reading right there due to the fact that 1-70 is easy, not to mention, around level 70 is about the level that a lot of these returning players come back at, LOL. Its the later levels that slow down to a crawl. If you said 1-100, then we wouldnt have a problem. Level 100 is the social part of this game and where returning folks need to be. Not level 70. There is nobody around level 70 to group with. The low/mid level game is dead.

A lot of folks return to the game and see things as being insurmountable and overwhelming. If its so easy for these returning folks to level to max level, then why in the hell does this game have a hard time retaining these returning folks? Out of 10 players that return to this game to check it out, you'd be lucky to get 2-3 of those to even stick around. And the only reason they'll even stick around is because they have high end friends to help them get up to par. A lot of these returning players dont have friends that play the game anymore. So they dont have the luxury of getting any immediate help. Why? Because they are not at the social part of the game (ie level 100 right now) - And nobody at max level is going to want to help some level 65 stranger out that they never even heard of.

The further we go along in expansions, the higher and higher the AA/XP mountain becomes. Which means, the further and further behind these MIA folks not even playing get. Yeah, its not our faults that they arent playing, but some of these folks return to the game to check it out. I'd like to actually keep them around at better rates than we are seeing now, since this game isnt exactly attracting any true new players at all.

These are some of the reasons that EQ1 isnt returning player friendly, much less noobie friendly.

@Kelefane If you actually read the first line of my previous post I am a returning player ...
I've just returned to the game. I've also just finished leveling a few brand new characters....
Grouping hasnt been a problem for me at level 70. There are plenty of people on my server. There were people of all level ranges to group with in fact.