it's just kinda sad you guys spent soo much time and effort developping the CoTF HA's system just to make them less and less desirable as time go by. the only reason i'm running TDS HA's is for the collection/hunter achievement... and that, is a sign of being really, really bored.
Again, as an endgame but not particularly uber raider I reached max level, max AA, did Mercenary and Partisans, ... while throwing away AA's for much of the last expansion. I'm ~20AA (unless you count that 100AA special) from max AA this expansion, max level, etc. Plus when it was announced that there would be Heroic characters I took a level 75 (not boxed) alt to 85 (now level 100), grabbed a pile of AA's, got him good mercs, good familiar, etc. Gribble HA's have been available to casual players for as long as they have been available to me. (And they were available to me at least 4x longer than I cared about exp). That's plenty of "catchup opportunity". TDS HA's are good exp hotspots? Good. Not that non-casuals need new expansion exp hotspots - we're done with that stuff already. But there still might be some ultra casuals who aren't and hopefully they log in and play some EQ, if necessary in the same mission day after day after day, until (hahahahaha we're level 100+, not level 20) "hot spots" aren't required and are no longer provided. Sure at level 20 provide catchup content. But at level 95-100 yer sufficiently caught up and SOE ought not provide a year's worth of EQ Lite as an alternative to playing the game.
I could enumerate the many reasons this change was a bad idea, but for now I'll just stick to your Dev reasoning-- You contend that the experience was too good, in fact, the best exp/time ratio available AND that you needed to put an end to it to prevent the player base from spending the "next year" inside of this single HA. Do you not see the logical fallacy of your own position? If the experience truly was that good and that fast why would players spend a year doing it? A week to top out on levels. Another week to top out on AAs... (according to you). And in the process enough currency to fulfill all of their CotF merchant needs. Why would players then spend the next eleven and a half months doing Gribbles? They're done with exp/AAs/marks. WOULD THAT PLAYER NOT THEN CHOOSE OF THEIR OWN ACCORD TO LEAVE THAT HA? The "problem" would have naturally resolved itself. Being finished, the player would then move on to the very things you are trying to FORCE them to do: The player would then move on to achievements. The player would go explore new content. The player would try other instances to get other Nameds with other specific drops. The player would want to get their TDS spells. The player would want to get their TDS gear. The player would be willing to try TDS progression. The player would not forsake their friends and guildmates and remain in an instance that now offers them nothing. But, hey... why let players do things their way when you can drive them out of the game all together? GJ team
Right on Casia. I'd much rather spend more time grinding before I get to work on other stuff, simply because I choose to exp in older content.
The question "What would players then spend the next eleven and a half months do?" is what drive this changes. We think those players will continue on to do other stuff, SOE thinks those players will stop paying for the monthly subscription. SOE is trying to stop losing money.
I accept what a dev has said because I saw people doing it. I saw it with LDoN's, Coldain missions, OMM's, and DH HA's... Since this is the case it seems to me that there are 2 rejoiners: 1. What business is it of SOE's to tell me what I should do? A. All the business in the world. It's their game. 2. I'll just find another low effort/high reward substitute. A. And if it's not in the new expansion and you are level 100+ they may, and they are entitled to even if they don't, change that too.
Roshen, May I respectfully suggest that the time between expansions is *not* the best time to change Heroic Adventures (or any other major mechanic?) Many players plan out what they want to focus on months in advance - particularly for things like new expansion releases. Changes in major mechanics like HAs - or the nerf to ROF experience (the thing that I really care about) - completely upend that planning. Putting in major changes like what has been done to ROF EXP and the HA's in, say, June or July would certainly have elicited some comment - but also would have provided players plenty of time to interpret the changes and adjust expectations and plans accordingly. By doing these changes 'between expansions,' SOE instead sets up a situation where many players have been planning what to do when the expansion was released for months - and then suddenly find that all that planning and action has been wasted. In my case, I specifically put off doing a lot of ROF progression to focus on COTF, planning to come back to it later; I would not have followed this course of action if these changes had been announced/implemented months before TDS was released. Making these changes over the summer would undoubtedly have generated some negative comment, but I think would have avoided the sense of 'bait and switch' that many players have felt with these changes rolled out simultaneously with TDS.
For those who like statistics can you tell me what the exp for HAs is like now compared to how it used to be? Getting all the exp at the end of the HA makes it seem like a lot but are we really getting more exp? Someone must have analyzed this by now.
Haven't done the math on it but you have to figure in fact that once its completed to get the real experience you can't do again for 3 hours. Potions and Lesson have zero value in older HA now due to the experience nerf on regular kills. No way it could even be remotely close to same as before with pretty much no one around anymore doing them. Guess if wanted to drive people from older HA it shall be granted a victory for them.
I guess if SOE doesn't "want the way that some players experience EverQuest for the next year to be from the inside of a single Heroic Adventure." and wants them to spend time in the new content players were complaining there wasn't enough of they've found a way to encourage that behavior. And yes, since there isn't a small crowd clustered around Gribble any more I expect players have found content with a better payoff than Gribble now provides. Or a lot of players have leveling and AA largely accomplished and have turned their attention to TDS progression and group drops. Probably both better places to exp and many past that point. Lotta people in TDS. Lotta players level 105.
"Lotta people in TDS. Lotta players level 105." If /who all Warrior 105 yielded 3 results instead of too many to list I'd agree with you. However, crowds not gathered around LDoNs. the Coldain mission giver, or OMM when those ceased to be the best deal in town did not signal a precipitous population reduction. An interesting factoid - I'm seeing more returnees at the start of this expansion than I've seen in the past. I don't think it has anything to do with Gribble HA's no longer being all some people do in EQ for a year. I think it's because a lot of new products are rehashes and people have some EQ nostalgia. But EQ is dying is always a good protest sign to wave about.
Those nerfs didn't follow a full year of nerfs, and were not coupled with static zone exp reduction. They also did not happen in tandem with an expansion with extremely litte content.
If /who all Warrior 105 yielded 3 results instead of too many to list I'd agree with you. There are always adjustments. I remember adjustments when OMM stopped awarding experience. An interesting factoid - I'm seeing more returnees at the start of this expansion than I've seen in the past. Returness, not departees. Scads. I guess the mana burn nerf, green pet pulling, Headshot etc. being nerfed wasn't the end of EQ after all. Despite some players asserting that everyone was going to quit. BTW LDoN wasn't exactly exciting for raiders - if you insist on chatting about times that were light on content. EQ survived that. I'm sure it will survive the TDS raids - especially since many many many guilds haven't completed them and for the forseeable future do in fact have content in front of them. You don't quit because you anticipate running out of content 6 months from now. If you quit because of running out of content you quit because you have run out. A - untrue B - always the case C - might be true in the future but isn't true now. Your argument doesn't have feet.
I have been running a large casual guilds for 15 years... haven't deleted inactive players for at least 10 of those years. Where are all these returning players you are seeing? I am always out there recruiting.... I don't see a bunch of returning players. Saw a bunch back when free to play came out but haven't for this expansion and I am pretty sure SOE hasn't seen any large return of players. You get some every expansion but scads? I don't see it. I can also confirm that with the new expansion I have seen a lot of regulars stop logging in. Will this end EQ? No. But I think this expansion could have been handled better by the Devs. I think even the Devs believe that. The fact is that they didn't have enough time to do a proper expansion and they knew it. They even said that the HA changes they made were not something that could have been done do to the time contraints they had.
Actually if you think EQ is NOT dying then you are deluding yourself. The simple fact that we have gone through so many server merges tells you EQ is dying. The only question is HOW FAST will it die not whether it will or not. And guess what? We don't want it to die either. That is why we get upset about things we think will hurt the game. I would like to see the demise of EQ to be as slow as possible and see the game around for a good long time with healthy server populations. AND I would like to see new players but that's a pipe dream... still it would be nice to see people return and stick around and that won't happen if they are forced to put large amounts of time in to progress through the game. Throw the casuals a few bones and let the feel a sense of progression. The way the expansion was rolled out and they changes they made caused some people to leave the game. That's bad for the game no matter what you think. Some of the changes are probably overall good for the game but it was how they were handled and rolled out that pissed a lot of people off. The fact that people are nudged into doing different HA will probably be good for the game. The fact that things like lessons and double exp days and the accompanying use of EXP potions will probably hurt the game. Not that there were that may double exp days but that and lessons got people excited to play. Earning bonus exp made them happy.
Why would they (the HA system) be less and less desireable? We gain more HAs which leads to greater variety. The newer HAs should be comparable to old ones for experience, *and are*. The whole nonsense about all XP in TDS being rubbish is entirely that - nonsense. SOME mobs in TDS give rubbish XP, and IMO that is a problem with progression, but HAs specifically are fine. I've done many more HAs in TDS than in CotF since launch and don't feel that I'm unfairly suffered due to it. IMO the easy way to solve this is to use the technology that already exists, albeit perhaps with an amendment. The task system has the ability to auto-tune rewards (currency) based on how many are farming it. If every man, woman and their dog is farming one specific instance (eg Gribble) then the system can already track that. The ideal solution therefore would be to auto-tune the ZEM and hail-reward, so that experience gained through killing and completing varies. Over time people will naturally spread out, which is good. You can still grind one thing if you really want, and it won't be the huge cliff-edge that we have now with sweeping changes to all instances below level X or all instances in expansion Y. However if you want to maximise your XP gain then doing harder instances would lead to higher rewards. That's good IMO.
Firstly I wish to apologize for my broken English (not my mother tongue). As I mentioned earlier I rarely post on EQ board and I have played Everquest since 2001. Everquest was my First MMO and my main character is the very first character that I created on 2001. Since then I became a big fan of Sony. Just to show you how big I am a fan of Sony: Within the last 6 years, I have bought 6 Sony laptop (my kids + me) and 2 Sony LCD TV (40 inch + 32 inch) , 2 Sony playstation 2 + 1 Sony playstation 3 (I have only used it once to play FFX3 for less than 1 hour. I bought it because its SONY) and 2 Sony PSP. O yeah, 2 Sony mobile phone too. Presently I own 3 account on Everquest fully paid until Feb 2016 with the latest expansion. I used to play hardcore during my earlier days (90 days raid attendance 100% EVERYDAY), but with all my EQ friends quitting the game and guild fall apart + the group mission is becoming more and more raid-like with emote etc compared to SoD. It is becoming impossible for me to complete the group mission solo. So I end up playing a few hours per week looking for the less complex mission to get some exp and aa and feel I have accomplished something. Example : DH mission: clearing a path. Usually it take me 1 hr 30 min to Clear the whole zone and complete the mission, and with Lesson, I can get around 14 percent of exp + some aa. A couple of mission PER week and I feel very happy about it. With the present exp nerf, basically EQ Dev has denied me EVEN a bone to chew on..and rain on my little parade. The emotional attachment to my main character is what make me to stay on EQ until today and whatever LITTLE enjoyment left in eq for me, EQ Dev just destroy them. Of course I am angry. Guess I am going to write off my 3 account subscription and NEVER deal with Sony again. I will NOT buy anything with a SONY tag. P/s Bet this post will suddenly disappear and this is the last time I will post on this matter.
Exactly where are all these server merges you claim we've had? One 5+ years ago and then one 4+ years before that? And with all these server merges we still have what, 16 servers left? (I will give you some like Vox/Trakanon are really low on players.)
