Producer Letter: About Heroic Characters...

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Windstalker, Sep 23, 2013.

  1. Bobby New Member

    Does that mean we MUST create the free character before Oct 15th? Can I just wait and make one some other time for free?
  2. Dulcenia Well-Known Member

    If you want one yes. After Oct 15 you only get to trial one.
  3. Dulcenia Well-Known Member

    That was something you got in response to a post, Qeshar? Why do you feel you need to spam the rest of us in such a large font to inform us of it?
  4. Nocturnus Member

    Considering that near my entire roster is full of level 90's, the heroic characters feature isn't going to do me much good, even though it sounds like a great idea.

    However, I remember some awesome looking armors being set aside at Fan Faire for heroic characters, in terms of unique appearances. If you aren't planning to already, I would like tof you to please add these armors as a marketplace option as well, separate from the heroic characters. I'll happily pay for it, and some of the styles that were shown were amazing. :)
  5. Bashem Well-Known Member

    I did 65 levels with my my last 95 crafter my provisioner labor day weekend with the bonus XP boring grind but doable as a solo thing so I dont think its necessary to have crafters instantly leveled to 85.
  6. handsome pete Member

    LOL may as well give them 95 320 aa's at that point. I took a lv 1 ranger ratonga from 1-90 in about 6-7 months solo. Granted I knew where to go this time, collections etc and some twinking going on. This was done with a full time 50 hour a week job. Tons of things that I was able to skip that I couldn't the first time around. So they took the dreaded shard runs out, they took the actual progression out by making you a level 1 whatever you are instead of lv 20. Now this... well hey it;s their game we just pay to play it.
    Pixistik and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  7. Stormbourne New Member

    Ever since this idea first hit the forums I've been weighing the value of it. Sad to say, I haven't come up with a lot of pros. I do agree with many this it will relieve a lot of the stress of questing in public power-level hotspots (Qeynos Claymore Timeline, 'nough said). I also think it's nice--in it's own way--that the final version will be a decently-hefty price, which may limit the flood of 85s a tad. But my applaud for the move to "high-powered play" ends there.

    In my opinion, this feature will do for the storyline what mercenaries did for groups--kill it. True, grouping may have been on the decline before AoD, but mercs made it worse. Giving a new player the ability to buy an advanced character just doesn't sit well in my mind and will only cause further decline of EQ2's soul. Any decent, if not hard-core, gamer that loves an RPG knows that the story is even more important than mechanics. Yes, questing and grinding from Level 1 to the current cap can be a big issue, but it also serves a greater purpose of slowly introducing a player to the wonders and horrors of Norrath. If you don't know why heroes are needed, then it's just another action game.

    Additionally, standard play allows a player to try their class and really learn it from the ground up. No amount of "training wheel hotbars" are going to fix that. If you take a player that has never had anything to do with Everquest and drop them in a high-level character, they're only going to be of-use to themselves anyhow. Unless they're incredibly intuitive, groups and raids will figure out which one of their new groupies is a n00b and which one really knows his/her stuff. After that, the new player will re-enter the desolate hell of Sololand along with the majority of new players anyhow... and be $35 the poorer. Happens that way currently with power-leveled toons, so I don't see it changing with a shiny new toy.

    Personally, I see this as a move by a company that no longer cares about where it came from. EQNext is on the horizon, so EQ2 can wither in the shadows. I've never played EQ1, so it might be swept under the rug, too. Sure, a story-until-now option might take some of the sting out of the blow to the overall experience, but a lot of nuance will be lost in translation. It would be the equivalent of coming into a long-running, well-loved television show during the last season of the series and getting an hour-long episode of "what you missed." No real love for the characters, the plot, the understanding of the gravity of the situation... just the facts.

    Now, if SOE would just yank the permanency idea out of the equation and leave the "try before you buy" option for new players to the game, that would be okay. New and existing players could try the classes and see how they like the end-game stuff, then let them start and learn the class properly. Another option would be to allow accounts that already have a L85 character to "unlock" this function, so that at least they have a minimal idea of how the game works. Yeah, I'm sure there are a hundred different ways that SOE could have gone with this... I'm just not keen on this one. I won't use it, and I don't think most of my family/friends will, either.

    And rolling up a flying mount and gear into the bundle makes the actual insta-85 idea even cheaper and infinitely more sad...
    Artemiz, Zarriya, Tariya and 2 others like this.
  8. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    As am I.

    Uwk
    Wirewhisker likes this.
  9. Avahlynn Well-Known Member

    As a new player to this game, I won't be using the new insta 85. I will continue on as I have (my guildmate and I hit 31 today!).

    I'm enjoying the journey. Some days I craft, or do deco. Some days we quest or explore. We do writs for the guild. This week we built a new water feature for our guild house entry area. Last week the guild did enough writ work to buy a guild amenity. We were thrilled, the victory was and is still sweet.

    I did 100 writs to help with that. I really put in effort into the goal of that amenity. We also have bought three tool stations with guild generated status, which feels really awesome to have accomplished. So the idea of just being 85 and missing out on all the learning and the fun of each win? No way, no thanks. Slow and steady is my mantra here in eq2. The idea of this seems really foreign to me, to just rush past so much content. It's nutty. And while I am new here I am not new to gaming. Got over a decade there and have had high level charas on many games.

    So I'm not new to the online mmo world, but I am feeling sort of baffled by this all. I guess if you've played eq2 forever and leveled up a ton of charas maybe that has lost appeal?
  10. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    You, sir (presuming male, going by your avatar picture ;->), are absolutely BRILLIANT! :D I must admit, I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're absolutely right. Congrats for pointing this out! :)

    Uwk
  11. Taladorm New Member


    I wouldn't hold your breath. I would think the 3500 SC cost for additional heroic characters will further cement power leveling as an attractive option for a lot of people. Based on current SC card sales (walmart cards) for AB and not taking into any future sales or discounts the exchange rate is roughly 1 SC per 80gp. So a new heroic character will have an equivalent exchange rate of around 2800pp. I'm seeing a general range of between 100-300pp per hour for power leveling services so even at the high end there is some currency to be saved by using traditional power leveling vs buying a heroic character.

    In fact I'm predicting the initial wave of free heroic characters will bring in an above average number of power leveling classes for that very reason.
  12. Truwen New Member

    Heroic Characters will be great in any case. I look forward to them, and I am sure some of my old friends will come back and play because of this. It gives them the opportunity to "catch up" without the hassle of leveling. (Or so he says "I don't want to kill ten rats!") At any rate, have fun.
  13. RadarX Community Manager

    As a reminder for those of you just joining us, if you are interested in a discussion about pay to win? Please feel free to direct your feedback to this thread where we absolutely welcome your feedback. Thanks for your help in keeping the feedback specific to the Heroic Characters.
  14. d1anaw Well-Known Member

    As a new player to this game, I won't be using the new insta 85. I will continue on as I have (my guildmate and I hit 31 today!).

    I'm enjoying the journey. Some days I craft, or do deco. Some days we quest or explore. We do writs for the guild. This week we built a new water feature for our guild house entry area. Last week the guild did enough writ work to buy a guild amenity. We were thrilled, the victory was and is still sweet.

    I did 100 writs to help with that. I really put in effort into the goal of that amenity. We also have bought three tool stations with guild generated status, which feels really awesome to have accomplished. So the idea of just being 85 and missing out on all the learning and the fun of each win? No way, no thanks. Slow and steady is my mantra here in eq2. The idea of this seems really foreign to me, to just rush past so much content. It's nutty. And while I am new here I am not new to gaming. Got over a decade there and have had high level charas on many games.

    So I'm not new to the online mmo world, but I am feeling sort of baffled by this all. I guess if you've played eq2 forever and leveled up a ton of charas maybe that has lost appeal?[/quote]
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  15. d1anaw Well-Known Member

    It is the journey, not the finish and you should probably do at least one character the normal way. I have two characters that are max level crafters that I kept hoping they would permit us to change our profession. But since it doesn't look as if that is going to happen for some reason, I started adventuring them again. But they are behind on their AA because we did not have AA when the game started. Choosing to take advantage of whatever help there are is an individual choice. Some people feel the intense need to be the first one to level. Some of us don't bother. Who really remembers whose first except the ones who are vying for it? And some just seem to want to control the game for everybody. Take what you want, do what you want and leave the rest. What you choose to do impacts no one but you and those who choose to play with you. No one else matters.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Regolas Well-Known Member

    No idea why people our spouting 3500sc or $35 for these characters. Prices have not been disclosed, although it's not an unrealistic estimate.

    Especially as that berry fed cow was $50!
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  17. Mae- Well-Known Member

    Did you not click the link and read the FAQ? It's right in there.
    Regolas likes this.
  18. Taladorm New Member

    RadarX since you are monitoring this thread I have a question.

    Would it be possible for you to post the percentage list of classes that are created during the free period for heroic characters?
    For example: x% SK, y% Pali, z% Monk, etc. heroic characters were created during 1-15th of Oct.

    I think it would be very useful to see how certain classes are perceived and how they compare to their counterparts as far as new character creation rates go. I would hope this information would generate some discussion and great feedback as to why some classes are more popular than others and how the classes can be better balanced in the future. This event has the potential to generate the largest number of random new characters since the game was released and this data could help guide future designs and character development.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  19. Kuulei Well-Known Member

    Questing for languages and buying those you can, should be your responsibility. :rolleyes:
    No clue if these heroic characters will have their epic or ER done. I don't think they should because that would be going a bit too far in my opinion. o_O
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Tariya like this.
  20. Lodrelhai Well-Known Member

    Of course, if they always offer 1 free Heroic character to every account, people will just create a new account every time they want to roll a new character. Then they never have to pay for heroic characters.

    Your scenario also shows the same percentage of people staying with both scenarios, but assumes a 1000% increase in initial interest just because the trial character is free and permanent instead of free for one level. I think that is so far beyond a realistic expectation that there's no way to rationally deal with it. There's no history, poll, or other data available to us players that allows us to make any sort of realistic expectation about player response or financial success. SOE does have those numbers, and are the ones taking the financial risk if they've read those numbers incorrectly. This, apparently, is the plan that they feel has the best risk-to-reward ratio.

    Finally, if they are wrong about this being the best scenario, it is relatively easy later on to say, "We are opening up one free Heroic character to each account, indefinitely." Whereas if they went with the suggested option and found it wrong, announcing "No more free Heroic characters" would get a much less favorable response.