Please implement a /maxheroic command that: Checks if the char invoking it is heroic Checks if the command has not been used on this char If both checks pass, grants sufficient xp for going to level 100 That’s all, minimal effort. It would bring returnees much closer to relevant content. It would make heroics much more attractive. Would be nice to time it with anniversary. Variants are possible that give also aa or spells, but thats only a nice to have.
I think this would be great, but it should take chars up to 105. The point of the Heroic characters is to allow people to play in (relatively) new content with all the existing players who are already max level. A level 100 character aligns with Rain of Fear and Call of the Forsaken, which are 6 and 7 years old. A level 100 Heroic char would still face the daunting and discouraging task of earning 10 levels and gearing through 6 expansions' worth of content before being able to experience anything contemporary or being able to join the majority of the existing player base.
Why don't we take it all the way to 110? While we're at it, how about an "instant win" button, for those missions that are just too hard? If you can't tell, that was sarcasm... people these days want everything handed to them. Being hard is what made EQ great, where's the sense of accomplishment if you don't work for it?
It's not "hard", it's tedious. And it is an absolute barrier to returning and new players. If you want new people to play with, you'll need to let go of how you had to walk up hill both ways when you were a kid and accept that we've invented cars and buses since then. EDIT: And besides, it's not like any Heroic toon won't still need to go back through nearly every single expansion if they want to have all of the goodies and /achs and street cred that you have earned. This just lets them join real people and play the expansions that are being advertised to them a little sooner.
There could of course be variants that are of higher level, move the level up in time to keep the gap between max level the same (and reset the flag once) etc. Any variants which grant equipment or update the hotbuttons should be out of the question though because they would increase the effort too much (unless you only grant no trade currency for gribbles or something though). In variants that grant AA just re-use the same code as autogrant (but force it to override banked AA or silver/ftp restrictions temporarily). Either way, the basic idea remains the same: minimal effort to increase retention for returnees that buy or have a heroic. Now granting xp does have nothing to do with skill, it just skips a lot of tedium from a level range that no one groups in. This level range is normally filled with boxing crews or powerlevels, this idea here just gives another option to get to the grouping game faster. Skip the tedium of doing 1000x gribble or watching someone else of max level wipe zones for you for plat).
Handing a new player a 105 toon is not doing them or us any favors. That player is not going to know how to play their class, is not going to know what 2/3 of the AA buttons do, and is going to fizzle everything. These thing have to be learned, and that takes repetition. Also, if a player can't grind out 15 or 20 levels, I have to wonder if they have what it takes to hang with the big dogs.
I think you greatly exaggerate the benefits of forcing players to slog through all that old crap by themselves. Of course a new player will not know everything about the game or their class, but they will most definitely learn it much faster if they have peers to help them. And they will learn much faster from level 110 players who know what they are talking about, than they will from the perpetually-behind-the-curve casual players that they might find in the 85-105 level range. That's not meant as an insult - I was one of those players for 60% or more of the last 20 years. Never reaching max level and playing in new/relevant content was the thing that kept me from committing to and fully enjoying EQ for all those years. I have at least one of every toon (most over level 100) and I don't plan on starting any new characters, whether or not DBG changes Heroic Characters. But I strongly feel that a boost to 105 would be the most beneficial for new and returning players and the overall health of the game.
Everquest continues to cater for the max level characters with all their new content and leaves the new or returning players in the lurch expansion and yet another expansion again. It just goes to show, that the money is in the end game and they don't care about new or returning players. I was hoping the last expansion would have a way for new or returning players to level up with relative ease given that there are few players leveling up, but alas. It's a long solo journey unfortunately to max level. Once you hit 70ish the merc starts to fail and the grind becomes next to impossible unless you get help. That means boxing which Almar suggests in his guide (which is very difficult unless you opt for help from 'unauthorised tools') or buying a power level for extortionate amounts of krono from people using bot armies of 'unauthorised tools'. Leaving the heroic characters at level 85 shows the negligence of Daybreak to deal with these issues, as Everquest 2 seems to be keeping their levels in match with the expansion levels. Really though. I bought a power level for a few krono on FV last year, by someone who had a bot army (like 20-30 mages??) and I was awfully surprised at the speed of the power level. This guy had armies of mages taking down some of the toughest content in one of the toughest dungeons, and earning krono doing it. I wasn't the only customer, as he had other players leeching the exp too in the group and advertising his 'service' publicly (so I assumed he was legit). I would be awfully surprised if he wasn't using an unauthorised tool to bot that army, as I don't see how it is possible to do something like that without automation. I haven't played that near max level character since, because I don't know if it was legit or not. Let's just say, there is a dark side to everquest, that isn't exposed on the forums. That dark side includes many people using these 'unauthorised tools' to gain an unfair advantage. A lot of high end players own at least half a dozen characters I'd say, and use these tools to an unfair advantage over the solo player. That's just a hunch from reading Almar's latest guide where he explains the 'unauthorised tools' for botting and like he explains he published the information 'and is still here', so that just shows you. Especially FV, where loot is freely tradeable, the bot armies farming the dungeons have it easy. They can pick up raid gear and trade it for extortionate amounts of money. Like I said, buying this powerlevel opened my eyes to a darkside of everquest. ~ Botting ~ The botting software is very good and very clever, and they avoid detection. Daybreak could slam down on the botters but they don't. As long as there is someone manning the bot army at the computer, they 'turn a blind eye' supposedly. I wouldn't be surprised if the bot software was so sophisticated that it could get around the 'True Box' code too of the progression servers and so leave the 'supposed real players' under the 'illusion' that they are playing on a one-toon-one-player server. Now perhaps you can discuss that perhaps new or returning players who don't know how to play their class is affecting 'the health of the game'?
Yes, what EQ needs is an expansion like TSS with leveling zones from 1-110 with hot zone or better experience bonus. This could make it easier to find groups and catch up. It does not have to have a new race like TSS did.
And that is exactly the reason why maxheroic is a good idea: it accomplishes the same for minimal effort. Also it gives an alternative to the “dark side” like described above. It also makes the advertisement on the heroics true that you can join high level content, so I expect more heroics to be sold as well. If you are worried on skill one variant could add a flag that you can only invoke the command if you complete a quest like no heroism without fear.
I don’t see the difference with players who either get a powerlevel or a box group in repetitive easy content. The proposal does solve the issue that a lot of possible returnees give up in the range between 85-105. So it puts you on the brink of paid content, thus increases the financial health of the game for the longer term. There is still more than enough content left, 5 levels and many AA and gearing/questing, to build skill. You do have one good point though: a variant could also max the skills so your fizzle rates are lower.
