Why don't you revamp the language for AA's to reflect the bonus's you ACTUALLY get instead of making each person do math or be confused. I realize that it's only simple subtraction but why the need? Exmple: AA Armor of Wisdom says "This passive ability increases your armor class BY xxx points." It doesn't, it increases by the DIFFERENCE between those numbers, not by the specified amount. Why? Are you deliberately trying to deceive us? Why not say "Increases by xxx amount" and that's the actual number it goes up? Example: AA Combat Stability say "This passive ability increases the soft cap of your armor class by xxx%" yet when I level it, it didnt even go up 1%, it went up .1%, that's a tenfold decrease. Again why? Why does your language say one thing and do something else? Say exactly what it does so there is ZERO speculation or confusion on this.
Yep, the wording is confusing sometimes. Im guessing they mean how much that particular AA-line increases your xxx at rank n, compared to rank zero. However that is not really the information you need, considering that you will be at rank n-1 at that time...
You really want both. At least now you can see what the next rank is going to give you and do the math.
displayed AC on the character sheet and the AC values you see on items are not the same thing. Armor of wisdom adds AC points as though you were equipping a new item with more AC. That value then enters a long, drawn out algorithm to arrive at a value to display on your character sheet. Long ago they figured out they couldn't just continue giving players a 1-to-1 increase on AC forever. The numbers were just getting too high. So no, you're not being lied to, the system isn't as simple as you make it out to be. The soft cap value is not actually displayed anywhere in your character sheet. But say, for example, if your class's soft cap was 10% and you got a 1% bonus from CS, 1% of 10% is 0.1%. So what you're seeing probably checks out.
while I am also annoyed by their explanation of things. Part of what makes EQ...EQ, is that the player has to do all the thinking, deciphering and the math. 99% of the developers have no idea how it all compiles, they just yeet things into the game from their perspective of scripting and the players figure it out by what works and doesnt....thats why over half the AA's, Spells, Abilities are just duds and nobody uses them over other things.
This is so true. And 99% of the new players have no patience or initiative to go figure things out themselves or to even go read information posted in the past to help them understand a quest or why certain mobs do certain things. Instead they yell that this was never meant to be, the devs must correct it right now cause it is too difficult or doesn't make sense or doesn't happen exactly as the write up says. This is not targeted to the OP but a general comment.
If they can’t figure out take the difference of two numbers (that they are already displaying), then they might as well sunset the game.
When look at the spells for my characters, I see so much that is just plain wasted space. Some are not even situational. They just simply aren't as good as other spells we get, or the mechanic for them is so clunky as to make them useless. On the opposite end of things, there are spells that were pretty cool that were introduced in one expansion, but then that spell line was essentially abandoned. (Like how only a few classes get new auras at higher levels.) Same with how the design of tradeskills for new expansions would work a certain way, only to switch to something completely different a couple of expansions later. Then there are items that serve no purpose than to get in the way. (Things foraged or looted that have zero value to vendors, aren't edible, and aren't used in tradeskills or quests, for instance. Or, if they are used in quests, you have to loot them to get progress, but you don't have to hand them in, so they just end up sitting in your inventory and you have to manually delete them later to get rid of them.) I think that over its history, too many people had to do too many different jobs, and then add in turnover as people got poached by other games within the company or left for other companies, and the game just looks really sloppy a lot of the time (don't get me started on Overseer). And it is too much so for me to cut them a break entirely because of the age of the game or the fact that it was an early pioneer of the genre on this scale.
The developers who need to know that stuff actually know, most of them just don't need to. Hence: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ac-vs-acv2.210028/#post-3078126 https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ac-vs-acv2.210028/#post-3078127
Game is poo poo for new players, why would they want to waste time researching poorly documented game mechanics? Who wants to waste all that time researching a game versus just playing it? Nevermind, Path of Exile exists...
Idk it's one of the aspects of everquest I really like. I enjoy spending the time researching how to become better.
EQ is a fancy weighted random number generator where you try to manipulate the various equations to be in your favor via your choice of actions - expect some math / effort.
The only AA that need fixing are the ones that don't actually do anything. The ones that raise your stats but are ignored because you are above your cap. They simply need a note that they will do nothing if above the cap (planar power), not give the full benefit because of a soft cap (armor of wisdom) or give the full benefit (delay death). There are some AA that I still don't know if buying them actually did anything. None of us really need to know the exact math because we are going to buy all of them anyway. All we need to know is the information to prioritize purchasing order (soft cap benefits) or to skip completely (hard caps). There is really no issue with AA that go from 18% to 21% because it's pretty easy to figure out it's a % of a %.
This made me think of something I'm surprised I hadn't thought of before. Anyone familiar with EVE Online will know about the skill queue. The game actually lets you queue up skills, rearrange them, etc. Now, EVE skills are time based. If you're subbed, the skills keep getting completed as time moves on. Obviously, in EQ, you have to make the AAs to get the skills, but it would be nice to queue up the AAs, and let them be purchased as you earn the points. One less thing I'd need to use notes and spreadsheets for
The combat stability aa does exactly what it says it does. A new player has no idea what soft cap means though, so yeah it's confusing. The real issue though, in my opinion, is how complete and utter crap that aa line is. 1000 aa's and it barely does anything. every rank should cost the percentage it adds to the soft cap. at least in that case, when a new player spends aa's on it, they aren't upset by it.
This is a general problem with a lot of the AA lines. The cost per rank goes up, but the marginal benefit goes down.
