While that is true at the upper end, I was mostly referring to people leveling up. Below level 85, for instance. If they can't afford a PL, they can be in a for long and lonely ride.
For someone who has been playing the game for as long a time as you have, I'd hope that you'd have a firmer grasp on how development of a game like this works. While Design has its hands in a little bit of everything, the majority of the things they are planning like Heroic Characters and new Race/Class combos don't have as much of an impact on them. New Race/Class Combinations = Code. Heroic Characters = Code/Platform. The New Content = Content Designers and Artists With that said, they really can afford to do all of the above, and hopefully still get the new content out the door with it.
ROFL so you took EVERYTHING I said and decided to use the 2 points that you could to start arguing with me. Lets see last time i checked releasing a new zone is NEW CONTENT.....Plane of WAR?!? or did I dream that I saw that in the dev's post?!? Second redoing T5 merc quest line, once again NEW CONTENT.... I know exactly how this works and your comment is not logical and argument is moot. Please refrain from trolling my post in the future
I gave up on groups when I would make room for someone that was asking to be included into a group, redistributed tasks, rebuffed all, got set and started pulls only to have the new guy pull out after one or two pulls because he / she "had to go to work" ... if you know that, don't try to join long standing groups ... and don't expect groups to be all that enthused at taking unknown people into a working dynamic. In my case to complicate matters I have a disability which can strike at any moment making me less fit to play to completely unable to hold up my end. With that in mind I do not like to have to expound on these things mostly because it takes time... and I do not like being unfair to those that might want to join in ... The idealistic concept that groups would be easy and magically appear is, and always was. a nice dream ... even in the best guild experiences I had this was more often hoped for than realized except among certain cliques where if you were in, you were in ... if you weren't, well, so much for guild support ... Mercs simplify life considerably... maybe not the best tool, but it does not need AFK to answer the phone, go to work, or just be flat bad at playing ... their play is uninspired, but consistent and in that sense you know what the merc is going to do, and what it is not going to do ... and that makes for less stressful gameplay ... And yes, not having to roll on items that you desperately need and the other guy is just greedy to have ... that too ... And yes, on a couple of my toons, I am making sincere efforts to accumulate AA points to test the proposition that they help more than is believed ... just like the original AA points were discounted, I think the Merc AA points are not fully appreciated yet ... YMMV
I rest my case... The argument isn't if the player will be worth a d- or not, its the fact you would rather box with mercs then put real people in group
And i'm one of those people that, in any given opportunity, will put a real person in my group over a merc. Quite frankly, it drives me a little crazy when people refuse to dismiss their cleric mercs, for example, when a perfectly capable healing shaman is in the group. But that's neither here nor there. I'm in the category that would have prefered to see regular AA's instead of Merc AA's. But I also understand that them working on additions like new race/class combos, etc, doesn't impact their ability to dish out new content. It's coming.
I'm kind of on the fence with J5 merc quest changes. To me, it sounds like an overreaction to issues stemming from when Korascian Warrens was a hotzone. One night during that period, I took one of my alts there to work on J5 tasks. Next in line for me were the thralls, but there were a couple of groups doing them so I decided to come back later. As I made my way out, the /oocs were flying about someone keeping the entire area leading up to RCC clear, not letting anyone else in their group to get kill credit for the shocktroopers, effectively blocking others from finishing their J5. To say it got heated was an understatement. I went back a few nights later to continue. Thralls were clear, so onward I went with the tasks. There was an SK swarming the catapult area, but my friendly tell earned me a temporary spot in his group (well, him and his box) from the zone-in and my shocktroopers were done lickety split. A quick trip through the absolute joke that is Murdunk's, and another alt goes home happy.. I'd like to think this was the far more likely outcome in situations like this, rather than the poopstorm I described previous and (wisely) avoided. I suspect that this played out multiple times across many servers, and there was enough P&Ming about it to SOE that they decided something needed to be done to alleviate this... "bottleneck". Only, it's not a bottleneck anymore. KW isn't a hotzone, the quests are a breeze to do, and diplomacy and warm chatter still have their place. Who knows what form these changes will take. Maybe it'll be something like completing all partisan and mercenary achievements in any UF/HoT zone will also unlock J5's. I'm OK with that; even though I'd still plow through KW if I need them, more options aren't a bad thing. Then again, it would probably make a zone like lower HoT a madhouse, since that's arguably the easiest and fastest zone to complete, and people will gravitate to there instead. So we'll see. Heroic characters con indifferent to me. I have no need for them because I enjoy sub-85 content with level-appropriate characters and I enjoy PLing them myself if I'm so inclined. that's just me though. If others want the leg up and are willing to fork out the $C, it's whatever.
I've been searching for the release date for CotF T1-B release. I mean, heck, most players finished all the T1-A group content in less than 1 month, to include all of the four raids. Also, I notice one week into the current content that NO BPs nor shields are available. I find that fact hard to believe in itself and is unprecedented to the best of my knowledge. Any estimation to a release month would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. Cheers
half of t1 and half the gear...no boot 2 boot....im a monk thats what im waitin for damn it! Daddy want his new pair of shoes!
I'm all for Heroic chars to be honest sure theres issues maybe about 'learn your class' but also like mentioned its a long lonely grind for many, or a mindless PL of alts for people like me who pretty much dont even gear or buy spells on a new toon till they hit 85 and i take them to argath. T5 merc quests sure redo them or add alt paths that are relevent to the state of the game right now, leaving stuff that people require in the current game bogged down in old content isnt fun really, I've been looking at the 2.5 for my necro but no one wants to do the events for that and people are always begging for help to get through anguish for their 2.0 orb. On the subject of the new Heroic missions style in CotF i like that theyre there i also like the way there was some forced progression, what i dont like is what for me has been an apalling spawn rate for named in missions, and the ones in Bixie Warfront though a little interesting the first time or 2 are just a faff when you're basically farming them in the hope of getting Named to pop. Dissapointed that Bixie warfront has no 'real' zone mobs or named too if i'm honest nothing to hunt or camp if you dont want to do a task/mission so no reason to even go there, same issue with the dead hills. The missions annd tasks are great but at the loss of a real zone i'm not so sure PS love the rants about wanting content you paid for ! umm pretty sure they said it was a staged release, so you have the content you paid for and more to come as promised. Waiting patiently for the next x-pac so i at least have something to hunt for BP,Boots, caster Shield etc , glad it asnt all included in the first portion cos then there really wouldnt be any point in the next ones.
It's all about "EZ Mode" - people don't want to run their bot army through zones and zones of hostiles. RoF was this same way; quick methods to get from place to place. A "player" using 3-6 characters and a script or macro program pays more than the honest guy who groups up and does things "the right way".
The hub zone approach has really started to irk me because of its over use. Add to this that the guild hall regularly ports to a more convenient location that druid port spells, and this gets annoying.
I don't care what they do. What I do care is they give the bogus free to play crap. Stupid to login and you can't use your merc, can't use half your items because the bags are gone, worst of all I can't use any of my gear now? Sorry but I earned that right to use it, just because I cant pay for the game because I have other priorities? Especially after playing for over 10 years and thousands of days played. Really frustrating, how about instead of new class/race combos and free 85's you get a working F2P system to encourage a player base.
In times past, if you didn't pay you didn't play. Copper and silver accounts have restrictions so you will pay for gold. This is the way it is setup.
While I do agree with what you say...I think those people returning should have the ability to use their mercs regardless of status (seeing as how they'd likely be silver anyway, if they had an account before FTP went in). Also, the gear they are currently wearing should have any prestige tags removed from it (this, imo, should include augs too) and they should have the ability to use whatever spells they have already at whatever rank they already have. This way they can actually do something when they log in to see if they actually want to come back or not. Quite a few of the people who look to return but want to check it out first using FTP log in, see that they can't use any of their gear...say screw it and just log back out. It's kind of counterproductive to the idea of FTP, imo. Of course, it'd have to only be for old accounts before FTP. Although...I think any content that's available through FTP up to the second to last expansion available should have no prestige tags on it (on the gear at least) to begin with. As in...atm it should be that way for all HoT gear. Just my opinion, though. *shrugs*
While this is true, then why bother having a free to play feature? It's because they want to make money and the system is broken and it sucks. Period. There are many many many games before and after Everquest that use the Free to play model. And it works a million times better, the only other game game where it fails hard is Dungeons and Dragons Online or now known as Dungeons and Dragons Unlimited but sadly its VERY limited, infact, I can't use all of my characters (I used to play DDO) so I have a full account of characters some were max level at the time (which was 10) and some are level 20 w/ capstone and access to everything, but now I can only play one of my 8 characters? Bull. There is a laundry list of other problems with DDU's Free to play system much like EQ. I know plenty of people who would come back in a heart beat, even to come back and play progression realm (its the only way they would start a new account/characters otherwise they would prefer to play their lv 70s or 65's most left during GoD/PoP) but when you can't use ANYTHING, its a huge slap in the face. If it the games set up to be a P2P, then remove the F2P don't tease people better yet don't LIE to people saying you can play for free but with restrictions. Put them on a separate server instead, then we'll remain blistfully ignorant of live servers or TLP/Progression Realms. But screwing returning players who had to leave because of RL and want to come back cus its a brand, a game we trust...I mean don't piss on my leg and tell me its raining. And the way I see EQ:next and having to pay for beta access? Last I checked its not a kickstarter and you aren't a indy company. I would have maybe been fine donating. If that was module but with landscape your already asking to make the Fing game for you... then you want our money for it? Ugh. Seriously?
