The Drinal Signature Line - Positive Feedback

((
I wanted to come to the forums and post some positive feedback, as I think most players only ever come here to complain and whine, and stay quiet when they like something. This is evident by a quick scan of the front page on just about any day you care to mention. This post is different.

This new signature quest, split over 10 parts, is absolutely wonderful content. It is well written, it is challenging in places, and it is long and detailed enough to keep us busy for some time (especially those of us with many, many alts).

I love the fact that it is based around solo content, but in places challenging enough to require a duo or the careful use of a merc to complete (this is for the non-heavily-raidgeared amongst us, which is the majority of the characters in the playerbase of course).

I love the fact that it takes us through all the new zones, with an option of either Heroic or Solo(Advanced), as part of the questline itself. It is a way of "forcing" us to see that content, and it is well designed and beautiful, and those zones are worth visiting!

I love the fact that we have to complete it with each character separately if they want the rewards and accesses for that character, as it will mean dedication and commitment are rewarded. I see already that some are complaining about this very fact, but this is a positive for the gaming community from my perspective, not a negative, and aids in game playability/longevity. I certainly intend to try to complete it on all ten of my characters over time!

I also like that the druid and wizard portal accesses are built into the questline as well, so once again, characters have to earn those kinds of access privileges.

Overall, the adventuring aspects of the new expansion are very enjoyable. I have made plenty of less positive feedback over my twelve years with the EverQuest franchise (and as a player on Antonia Bayle since November 2004), but for COE, I would like to commend the developers on a job well done!

~player-of-Felishanna.
))

Yes, cause the massive decline of people logging in and playing outside of raids is great for the longevity of the game. Its just a matter of time before they do all the raid content and stop logging in all together.

Great stuff, really.

((
You have no proof of that statement about "massive decline", and SOE have stated the opposite is true. I suggest you just made it up. The "me and my friends don't like questing and only what we want matters" is not proof of anything, other than that is your personal opinion (which is no more valid than mine of course).

However, you may be sick of the "this is EverQUEST" argument, but that position is never going to go away, as many of us feel that is exactly what the soul of this game is about.

If that upsets a few players, we won't miss them, as with content that is this good, more players will replace any leaving at a rate of 10 for 1.

Of course, I have no statistical evidence for that last statement either, but if you can make stuff up, so can I.
))

My evidence is based upon running the largest active guild on Unrest containing both hardcore, and casual players.

People are not logging in and doing groups nearly at all now due to the design of the gated heroic content.

Now, maybe my large guild containing a cross section of many play styles isn't endemic of the overall playerbase, but I'd bet that it is fairly close.

I'd invite a fansite to host some polls on the matter to prove me wrong

I understand your miopic view that the everquest franchise is about doing soloquests, but I don't think you'll find many players like me who've been around since eq1 beta that will agree with that viewpoint. Its an adventure game, quests are just part of the overall picture.

BTW, SoE has made no comment regarding the amount of grouping going on since CoE came out. I imagine there was a fair amount of SS grind groups going on for the fast XP, but I doubt the number of groups zoning into CoE dungeons is remotely on par with how many were doing SS ones at this point after its launch.

There are some statistics that you can rely some on. The number of guilds raiding per expac, the number of guilds who clear expacs; etc. This correlates to the number of people playing at that level, and ultimately the game.

The number of guilds raiding, and clearing expacs continues to decline, of course hard numbers are only known by SOE, but they will tell us everything is great and peachy just like politicians.

I will chime in with Atan here. I am one of the MTs of our servers 2nd best raid guild and actively competing for first against Avatars. We are the only guilds contesting Avatars the guilds behind us are still back in SS or very early PoW which by now is quite easy script wise Berik Bloodfist is not a hard fight. Of the high-mid end guilds they now suffer from 3 groups to a raid which is holding them back because they lost members over the expansion conversion and holidays. There used to be almost 40 raid guilds on Guk now there is at best 15-20 that's over 50% decline. I am even counting the pick-up guilds that clear 3-5 bosses of EM and call it a day.

I have never had issues forming groups. It takes me 20-30 mins to form groups for these zones usually having to pull complete unknowns and gamble my groups success. The steady decline is reflected by the decreasing number of LFG and LFM's i see in our chat channels as well as the increase in time to form groups.

You wanted lively and surging heroic content then look at Sentinels Fate. Rare drops to get T2 equivalent raid gear? That was great kept raiders in heroic. Though we still had 2 full sets of armor above that. People ran zones daily to get Marks of Manaar for faction gear as there were some beast solo-procs on the stuff.

Now heroic feels likes its taken a backseat to just farming zones Solo. Alting is gated by the sig-quest that while well written it seems a bit unrealistic that 1 Norrathian saves all of Etherenere.

Yes the art direction is pretty and the lore is well written as always but that does not cover up glaring problems behind progression players have come to expect form new $40-$60 expansions which is almost always a gear-reset that puts raiders back in heroic and lets things mix once again.

Where have they made that statement, and what proof have they provided?

Did someone say Statistics?

Characters that have cleared these Dungeons:

• Ancient Vault - 658
• Forgotten Catacombs - 746
• Wurmbone's End - 1,586
• Wurmbone Crag - 2,421
• Temple of the Faceless - 5,420
• Dreadcutter - 5,800
• Throne of Fear - 5,815

Heroic? How much are people repeating the content Feldon?

Prior to CoE coming out there was a steady stream of players online looking to group up and do stuff. Since CoE came out and they realized they have to do the quests on alts to get obols and essences, very, very few people are LFG, and I see very few get going both in guild and out.

3 fastest to clear are on top. I love the look of Ancient Vault, but does take really long to clear for one item.

I like there being a great number of quests that are solo. I think this is great.

however, i very much would have liked for there to be some group and raid quests. i miss having to face more and more difficult challenges as I proceed through the expac.

I also think that it's rather terrible that we basicaly see EVERYTHIGN in the solo zones. I don't want to be soloing dragons and avatars. I want there to be something special and epic about facing off against a difficult foe. Just SEEING Venekor in Cazic Thule used to put fear into people and there was such a great feeling of some MASSIVE and EPIC boss at the end of a difficult heroic or raid instance. Heck, even just running up to Rallos Zek in PoW is an awesome experience. And now it's... "oh venekor? I two-shotted that chump".

At this rate we'll be soloing Kerafyrm soonish. There is absolutely a place for great solo content in the game. But can't let's not completely scrap Heroic and Epic quests either.

SOE live login statistics provided by Smed during the keynote.

Those being login stats that include ftp accounts? Lies, damned lies, and statistics.

I wish I knew.

Heh... question asked, answer given, straight from the mouth of the CEO of the company, and...

OMFGLIAR.

So in otherwords, you weren't looking for an actual bit of facts to back up Felishana's valid statement. You instead wanted to pander your doomsday scenario in a thread based in positive feedback.

Back on subject.

Thus far, this content has been among some of the best in terms of artistic quality and the story associated. It's nice to feel purpose in doing something like a quest or dungeon: advancing an interesting narative instead of simply going for a piece of gear with 20 more strength.

What was his exact statement? My question was never answered. If random FTP accounts are being counted, then I do want more specific information. Of course the mouth of the CEO is going to spin it the best way possible. Are you actually seeing things as getting better?
Please. Do give me facts. Smed PR isn't facts. It's Smed PR. Give me facts.
Back on subject...I've heard almost no feedback from the people I used to play with that in any way relates to what you are saying.

You guys are talking about active subs over a much longer period of time. My statement is active subs aren't logging on nearly as much since CoE came out cause there is no desire to treadmill the heroic content cause of the reasons I quoted in the first reply to this thread.

I have facts, I can see every time I log in how little grouping activities are going on now vs 3 weeks go.

((
Not that it is relevant how long any of us have "been around in Norrath", since every player has equal value regardless of how long they have been around, I also have played EQII since 2004, and EQ1 before that for many years, and know as much about the history and changes within this game as any player - and I completely disagree with your hugely negative viewpoints.

But more relevantly, in this and all the other threads you are currently flooding with negativity, you are still mistaking your opinions and personal assessments for facts. Your guild is just your guild, and your friends are just your friends. I suspect they are likely to have similar views to you, so it is not entirely unlikely they might feel as you do. However, I would suggest you would be very mistaken to assume that more than a minority opinion.

You do seem to be flooding the forums with negativity. This is a positive feedback thread, yet here you are, trying to pour water on the good comments being made by others.

Regardless of your "reality", the Norrath I see each night when I log in is teaming with players, all working on the quest content, all crafting merrily, chatting in channels, buying/selling and everything else that they usually do. It is all pretty normal, apart from a general sense of joy and excitement about having some shiney new content and some lovely new zones to hunt in.

EQII Norrath is more fun right now than it has been for years for many of us.

If all you can bring is negativity, perhaps that is the REAL reason your guildmates are not logging in, not some overly-negative opinions on the new content.

Many of us absolutely love it, it seems. It just sounds like you personally need a break from EQII.
))

Personally, I'm not finding CoE fun.

I play this game to group (I can't raid often although I enjoy it), and to get better gear. I don't play to solo although I like having the option if I'm really short on time to not have to rely on others.

The signature questline is ok the first time, but it's got a lot of boring "kill 10 of x mob" to it too. Repeating it is boring as anything except when you get into a solo instance.

I toi have already seen a decline now the newness has worn off, of people forming groups. My guild had a load rush to 95, do the sig line on their main (many started and got bored so stopped), run the dungeons once or twice and then stop playing as much.

I play off peak mostly and the first week after launch there was loads of people on. Now it's dead again.

People (myself included), won't play alts who haven't done the sig line, so that limits the ease of forming groups, and many are just running the solo instances for the rare + 179 stat red & yellow adorn gear.

+1 to the op. This is definately the right idea. I love that they finally started putting together solo content which is truly challenging with decent rewards.

It's interesting that the hard core raider types keep complaining about declining numbers, but those in more casual guilds don't see that.

Or just go to the guild browser (can't think of the name, the window you get when you hit 'u' on an unguilded character). Look at how many guilds describe themselves as casual compared to how many describe themselves as hardcore. Or even casual versus all guilds which don't consider themselves casual. The casuals dominate by far.

SoE has finally gotten a clue that their typical customers (i.e. those paying the bills) are fairly casual players who do NOT raid multiple times per week and may not even group very often (they're not very organised). The key for SoE to do well is to keep those casual players engaged and playing. This means among other things that they really need to put the emphasis of content creation on those casual players. Spending a major portion of their content creation capability on a few raid zones is a recipe for failure.

In addition, while I like heroic and epic content it should NOT be on the main questline. The main questline has to remain accessable (yet still fun) to those typical casual players. Otherwise you block most of the playerbase from progressing which is a really bad idea if you want to keep most of the playerbase.