Too Little Carrot, Far Too Much Grind

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Doomravin, Jul 9, 2017.

  1. Carni Active Member

    They know we can express our dislike, it is known. It is crystal clear. Getting them to actually care, now, that's the challenge. Speak with your wallets, folks!
    EmJay, Lateana, Tekka and 5 others like this.
  2. Melt Actually plays the game

    1/100th? You play a paladin, so that may be true for you, but even the best geared players in the game are probably not pulling even 10 times my dps on average.
  3. Neiloch Well-Known Member

    What work is done is seemingly wasted on features and systems no one asked for and players repeatedly gripe about. The idea that there is no way to make money putting in things players like with their current resources is ridiculous. The problem is it requires listening to players and taking design feedback when they are missing the mark on their own so routinely.
    Lateana, Tekka, Livejazz and 2 others like this.
  4. Doomravin Well-Known Member

    And re-railing the thread!

    I appreciate other peeps have loads of issues about other aspects of the game atm, but I meant for this one to be about the constant in-game need for more and more grinding

    My point was is that we've had far too many grind-fests after grind-fests this expansion and it's simply became too much for mere mortals like myself to, well, enjoy - because it's NOT FUN

    Don't get me wrong: - I love a good session of grinding away every so often to earn a nice reward! However, all this expansion seems to do is offer more and more grind each and every month in order to keep current with other players and to not let my fellow guildies & raiders down.

    I believe it was said "If you don't like it, don't play it" (with regards to proving grounds). Yeah right, like that's an option for anyone who raids or wants to contribute the best they can in groups or raids and not let peeps down

    Rough order of the worst grind-fests so far this expansion: - (in my opinion)

    Ascension Levels - gated grindfest
    Epic Weapon - gray con grindfest ad faction sleepium
    City Timeline - The "you're joking, right?" green con grindfest
    Proving Grounds - No parse info grindfest, buggy and badly coded server swapping crashes for many players!
    Ascension abilities - Pay to Win Grindfest - insultingly low drop rates on all abilities at all levels with adept and master the worst of the worst, purely a cash grab if you as a player want to do high dps quickly
    Tithe - still an utter grindfest and so broken they had to nerf both it and previous expansion's exp rewards

    One or two of these wouldn't have been too bad, but piled one on top and one after another, all in a single expansion, makes this donkey sit down, ignore the tiny eq2 carrot, and start munching on fallout 4 salad

    To quote the essence of my issue with the current grind overload in a nutshell: -

    From the AD&D 2nd Edition Dungeon Master's Handbook page 45:- "Three goals are constant: fun, character survival, and improvement. Each of these should be possible in a single game session"

    So....... where's the fun gone?
    Meneltel, Anaogi, Livejazz and 7 others like this.
  5. Earar Well-Known Member

    and the ethereal will be grind again

    the fun is on FG
    Dude and Xephane like this.
  6. Beyoncia Well-Known Member

    There is no fun on FG, it's just another grind. Do people play there just to play? No, they do it to get items for thier mains or make Krono.
    Lateana, Livejazz, Scrappyz and 4 others like this.
  7. Earar Well-Known Member

    some people really enjoy it there


    u don't have to grind, it's leveling, questing, grouping

    for groups, u don't actually need to have tons of potency, u just need to be the right level to be wanted to group (an right class of course)
    teammates aren't just OS by heroic mobs, tanks have time to take back agro and healers have time to save people (at least try) and dps have time to cast their desagros
    some classes are great and wanted again, the balance is better
    gear u get from quest will be relevant for some time, u rediscover the game or for some really discover quests u never done

    people do it for whatever reasons they want (and leveling solo as healer is a pain) but it's still funnier than on thurgadin, coz u do stuff and not the same thing over and over again (But I'd rather play on thurgadin)
    Lateana and Xephane like this.
  8. KythosMeltdown Active Member

    .

    Not you specifically. I meant from the time one finishes the KA timeline with 9k pot/no tithe/Ascension vs where people are at now
  9. Carni Active Member

    How would restarting on Fallen Gate be considered fun or entertaining? I would bet ninety percent or more have previously done that content, and will jet from that server within a week or less. The ratio of new people coming to this game has to be fairly low. I'm just down to raiding now, I wouldn't touch fallen gate and the ethereals won't lure me back, either. You can only redo certain events so many times. The stale is strong.
    Tekka, Livejazz and Mizgamer62 like this.
  10. Mizgamer62 Feldon Fan Club Member

    I think that because players on FG can't vote to unlock expansions they feel more compelled to level at a faster pace because 3 months isn't a lot of time to level without potions or being able to spend hours grinding and still be able to do heritage quests, get prismatic weapons done and raid. Therefore if you want to advance in one expansion before the next one unlocks, you are forced to grind.
  11. Jhen Ro Active Member

    Ascension Levels - gated grindfest
    • Agreed. Two tomes, and third character is sitting on level 2 of 4th ascension... I may never finish his.
    Epic Weapon - gray con grindfest ad faction sleepium
    • Also agreed - I don't mind doing SOME older stuff, but was too much overall for those who are doing it on more than one character. Headache enough on one, but by the fourth run of AoM, yipes.
    City Timeline - The "you're joking, right?" green con grindfest
    • VERY AGREED. SO MUCH AGREE. ALL OF THE AGREE. - I get why it's required, lore wise. I even get why it's required, cause a lot of time and effort went into it. But yeeeeeeesh. Couldn't you be flagged for this in a sense of "If Good Aligned, must have completed Qeynos City Timeline on one character - If Evil Aligned, must have completed Freeport City Timeline on one character" ?
    Proving Grounds - No parse info grindfest, buggy and badly coded server swapping crashes for many players!
    • Have only done the solos, and while not a fan, I will suck it up and do them. Wish I didn't have to zone to PG server and back n forth to do a solo instance. And definitely a grind. So very very many tokens. See below for additional thoughts.
    Ascension abilities - Pay to Win Grindfest - insultingly low drop rates on all abilities at all levels with adept and master the worst of the worst, purely a cash grab if you as a player want to do high dps quickly
    • I will admit, I am guilty of this one. I paid past the barrier on some spells - on a couple, jumped it a few levels even. I have given up on ever completing an Adept or Master WITHOUT waiting for research/paying to research. Absolute cash grab, and this type of progression is the main mark of worry I have for upcoming expansion, considering how they are doing spell upgrades going forward as a whole.....
    Tithe - still an utter grindfest and so broken they had to nerf both it and previous expansion's exp rewards
    • I have not intentionally ground tithe yet - I've done other things, and it has come as it comes. Not the wisest decision maybe, but is what it is.
    Also Summer Ethereals - Only known information so far is
    1. Will be heroic content only - no solo option.
    2. Will be utilized via Experts.
    3. Will be for BiS item(s). (Cloaks were mentioned a lot, but was never set in stone that I could find anywhere, but assume this is still the case)
    4. Will be ran for a new currency token, which is used to purchase the item(s). I have not been an active player during an ethereal event, but I am told it begins as no trade tokes and changes to heirloom towards the end (maybe?).
    My largest gripe right now is the solo PGs. When you go to PG server, you are almost entirely disconnected, other than guild chat. You don't have a general chat, or custom chat channels - you can't see friends list or guild list. If your friend is online in PG, you only know if you are in the same guild. Otherwise, they are just offline. If people are running solo pgs over and over to get the orange rune 4's... they just look like they aren't even online at all, unless they leave PG to switch toons.
    Makes the server feel dead, even if there are a lot of people playing but just in PG.
    Would be a big help if the solo instance/merchants were also put on individual servers. Maybe that's not an easy ask from the code side of things, but at least having those lines of communication still open would feel less ghost-towny.
    Not to mention, make the grind a little more bearable.
  12. Ratala Active Member

    For me the carrot has already rotted and fallen off the stick.

    The game stops at ToT for me now. I will let my main character on each yearly paid account just sit. I can't do the grind fest anymore. Now I just bring up little characters by questing and doing what ever I consider fun. I try to get as much status as I can and at level 90 or 95 when I don't want to have to grind experience I put all the status and platinum into the guild and delete the character and try another class. I don't run dungeons, I prefer the great out doors and open spaces. This keeps me in the game and doing things but I really can't see my husband and I upping our subs when they run out in November.

    I doubt we will buy the expansion when it comes out. I'm tired of all the grinding for tithe and ascension as it is. Nothing in this game is worth all the frustration that KA has brought and I really don't see that changing in the future.
    Meneltel, Juraiya, Tekka and 2 others like this.
  13. Jrox Well-Known Member


    Was there ever a true carrot? I think it was an illusion, to begin with. This stuff was planned out. My question is, who did the planning, and who approved such a build? Did they really consider what it would mean to us the player base?

    Answers:
    No
    Will never know
    Will never know
    No

    To this my point is simple, if the game is so cash poor for development, maybe it's time to put it to bed. I mean seriously, I find myself wanting to go to bed after a single solo PG instance now.

    Just sayin...
    Tekka, Livejazz and Uxtalzon like this.
  14. Naneeje Well-Known Member

    My biggest issue is that socially, the game has died. I love the social aspect of the game, and I get that from Fallen Gate now. Ever since Proving grounds came in, everyone is just in and out of battle grounds, no chat channels to watch. I miss people :(
    Lateana, Jrox and Livejazz like this.
  15. Whiomaju Member

    PG runs are about as much fun and challenging as to play with wooden ABC blocks. How dare the devs ask grown up people do this for hours on end? And this is just the latest insult in a long line of disastrous decisions by the developing team. I'm just seeing this game out until the end of this raiding season, if that long.

    EQ2 is done stick a fork in it.
    Meneltel, Tekka and Livejazz like this.
  16. Livejazz Well-Known Member

    That, right there. Was gonna say a lot more, then realized "why bother, nobody cares" & deleted it all.
    Juraiya and Tekka like this.
  17. Dude Well-Known Member

    I deleted six level 100 toons on Skyfire so that I could better enjoy FG. I don't even play my "main" on Skyfire anymore because of the grind. It's not fun. As for alts on live? Forget about it.
  18. Livejazz Well-Known Member

    If there were more maps for the solo PG, so that I can play my own character, I'd be more inclined to do them. But the thought of grinding anything at all, in that one dungeon map where I can't even use my own abilities or look at my own character, makes my skin crawl. It wasn't fun the first or second times, & I've every reason to believe it will become rapidly less fun the more I do just that one map.
    Justaplayer and Meneltel like this.
  19. Melt Actually plays the game

    We play it because it's fun. I guarantee you that very few people have done every single quest in the game. Oh wait, nobody has. There is a lot of content to do that most people haven't done. Myself, I play it because it is enjoyable to do all the stuff I never have before. Even my friends, one of which is a former employee, are enjoying it even though they have done the content before. Think about it a different way. This is not just a game. This game has community.
  20. Anaogi Well-Known Member

    I got my Tome on my defiler on the Fourth. That was indeed Independence Day for me--I am freed of that grind. I -could- switch to PQs and PGs but...honestly, I play Skyrim as much or more than EQ2 now. Because the last few expansions have been worse and worse, leading up to the current grindfest/whale hunt.

    For the first time, I'm not sure if I'm getting the xpac. The only reason I might is to stick raiding with the folks I've been with since Velious, who are an awesome bunch, and I'd miss them...
    Livejazz likes this.