No way to catch up to live. Autogrant and heroci chars don't cut it.

The position of the OP was related to returning players wanting to do end game content.

New players should TLP. Live gets the ocassional new player all the way to max le el, but they are extremely rare.

Whut? X2

If they have friends, they can be playing with them in... 15 min? Buy expansion, buy heroic, make toon, make toon heroic, turn on autogrant, accept invite,, invis up, start getting xp, use Lesson, then use xp potion. Log off when 90...

Here is an idea. Why not allow guild mates to tether to new guildies. This tether takes a percentage of higher level players exp. The tether gives the lower player a permanent buff that boosts exp gain and gives him a guild buff that can be unique with flavors based on race/class/deity of the higher level player. The more people a higher level tethers to, the more powerful this buff becomes. It would be like guild flavored version of fellowships without needing to be grouped or even being in same zone. The tether is only active when both are online. Upon breaking the tether the higher level will gain a buff that can be activated when not tethered, which will increase luck or combat/spell stats that lasts based on duration he was tethered and how many people he was tethered to. You get to help your guildies indirectly, and gain something for yourself later. Both the high or low level character can break the tether at any time, to tether to another character if they choose. It allows race/deity to have a meaningful positive effect too. More flavor makes your characters more fun to play, especially with the long exp. grind.
What do you all think?

DBG is not pursuing people new to the genre or the franchise. They are pursuing retired EQ vets. Enticing them back to the game.


I get what you're saying. But EQ has been around for 20 years. If new players check out the game, it's almost always because a friend recommended it or they know exactly what type of game they're getting into.

Fellowships.

It’s a good thing you don’t do any marketing for this game or any other for that matter.

On that we can agree.

I've never seen in all my years of eq.. it take a year.. for anyone on any server to catch up to play with friends..

An as far as retention rate goes.. were on our 20th year..

You clearly have zero idea of what your talking about when it comes to retention rate..

Please do us all a favor and just never speak to eq players about "retention" rate..

You should never talk about things you know not.about son..

When in beta they /beta buff. I'm sure they can increase the heroic toon by replacing what you get with a beta buffed toon from an expansion.

This is actually a good idea, could make a level 105 char from the betabuff 105 char, just give people the equipment, people get from the beta stuff.

About flags, let people still do the tasks for that, but equipment/hps and such would come from beta buffs. This should minimize the amount of work for a heroic char 100/105, and would ensure it could be reused when levels go up to 125, which is like 6 years in future.

Devs have stated, repeatedly, that it's NOT that simple.

Be happy. Play. Make friends. Go forth and be merry. Good attitude goes a LONG ways in a social game.

This game is PROHIBITIVE and IMPOSSIBLE to "catch up" in as a heroic character - unless you have a group of people that will carry you. You wont have any Hero's Vitality/Resoultion/etc AA's, you won't have any achievements from expansions (which is a huge problem considering the new TBL chase items require collection achievements going all the way back to CoTF -- seriously what moronic designer thought that locking a current 2019 item behind an expansion that launched 5 years ago was a good idea?).

If you want to raid, almost no guild on live is running EoK/RoS any more. Good luck getting your EoTD done, good luck getting your relife adornment from TBM which never got an upgrade (no one is running these anymore). Good luck getting RK 3 discs/spells from old raids that never saw upgrades. Good luck doing any kind of EoK or RoS progression, as it is a huge waste of time for anyone that's already done it. Good luck getting a guild to WANT to invest any time in getting you caught up so that you'll have the AA, spells, and blockers to make you viable in raids.

Heroic characters are a god damn joke for 35 bucks, you get nothing. Autogrant should include ALL achievements from the expansions that are autogranted, which means everything up to TDS should be GIVEN for free - at this point auto grant should give through EoK as well, let's be honest. Anyone who disagrees with this is a moron. Guilds are hurting for new blood, and EVERYONE should want the game to be more accessible to players who actually want to raid. Right now, the combination of needing to do 4 prior expansions (6 if you want all the Hero's AA), and needing ~10k aa beyond autogrant to be MINIMALLY effective in current content, you can easily see how no one would want to put in that much effort.

You seem to be really confused.

I see casual folks (NOT RAID FOLKS) catching up after starting with a heroic toon or just a toon they previously had. Some do it very fast some take a year or so which I don't find unreasonable. *shrugs*

Now I run a casual guild so I guess I have an ore in the water here but I don't think folks should be able to instantly come back to the game and be end game raiders. Unless they only left six months or a year ago and even then it will take a few months of hard work.

Now about your moron comment. Personally anyone who calls everyone that disagrees with them a moron is probably the one who is a moron. Just saying.

I don't expect the GM of a guild that takes in literally anyone with a pulse and has hundreds of active players to understand the struggle of trying to catch up in this game if you're a returning player.

First we don't take anyone with a pulse. You would probably be booted shortly for instance because you seem to have people problems. Oh wait. I guess we would take you but reject you shortly there after. But you are right since I see dozens of players each year come back to the game and catch up I probably have no idea of what you are talking about.

I mean I only specifically look for returning players to help them get back into the game and catching up. I only have lots of players in my guild who have done just that.

You know the really funny thing is if you are on this forum much you will find I am the guy who sticks up for the more casual players and trying to ensure progressing in the game isn't too hard for those who do have a life outside of eq.

Wow an entire DOZEN people. /eyes

You respond to my post facetiously and then say I have people problems, I see you can not actually address any FACTS in my post. Instead, you're relying on ad hominem and sarcasm to try and make a point.

Unless your guild is actively raiding TBL events, then you have nothing of value to say. This thread is talking about challenges with catching up as a heroic character to be raid ready -- something you'd never know as a casual player in a casual guild that has never accomplished anything of note in this game in your "19 years" of playing.

And that's why the game is so dead.

Umm read again dozenS.

Ummm your post called people morons. And whether my guild is raiding TBL is irrelevant. You will find that many of my players have moved on to raid guilds and are all generally considered very good players in the raid game.

One of the things I do is help those who come back to the game have a place to catch up so that they CAN raid. So yeah I have experience in seeing folks catch up to end game so that they can then join raid guilds. *shrugs*

Heh heh... never accomplished anything. I guess not as far as you are concerned. I had a player join my guild play through highschool and then join the marines and do a couple tours. Playing the game and playing in Lions of the Heart meant a great deal to him. I consider that a major accomplishment.

We take in many players and help them catch up in the game and get to the high end of grouping or raiding as they wish. I consider that a great accompishment.

I run buffing sessions almost daily that buff all level toons and help those returning to the game catch up faster and just enjoy the game more since low levels unfortunately have to solo a lot of the early game. I consider that a great accomplishment.

I run a guild I started in Dec 99 and we have continuously since that point been a large active casual guild giving a home to players either not interested in raiding or just not ready for it a home where they can enjoy the game in a friendly environment without idiots who call anyone who disagrees with them morons. I consider that a great achievement.

Not really. Daybreak themselves have said they are making a lot of money concentrating on returning players. Lets face it the graphics won't compete with current games.

Now I agree that some advertising for new people would be good I see the sense of what they are doing. But they can't make the game end game raid friendly for brand new players without messing up their existing player base. EQ is much more likely to get returning players and keep the existing player base then they are get new players no matter what they do short of a complete graphics overhaul.

Jim says it best (Not work friendly)...