Feel the Wind Beneath Your Wings with the Aerakyn Player Race!

This mistype totally made my day. Thanks.

@Arieste
You cannot use the adventure packs to defend the question about non-cosmetic dungeons being required to be unlocked by SC despite having bought the expansion. They are two completely different entities.

There is a difference between dungeons in an actual current expansion and the contents of the adventure packs (which were basically mini-expansions to fill in voids between major expansions) which you did not have to buy to play through the core game content. Though to be honest for the $5 to $10 dollars they cost they gave a lot of content to the player that was separate from the core game, and Fallen Dynasty while it did make more use of trying to tie into the core game still was not needed (at the time) in order to actually progress and enjoy the game.

There is also a reason why they were discontinued and then later given away free to everyone as long as they bought a certain expansion moving forward. They didn't hit the popularity mark that was expected.

Lets look at this from the perspective that I perceived the question that was asked.

You buy AoM and make your way through the storyline. Quite happily at that while helping the survivors rebuild, and then helping the wolf-bear-spider things. You come to the point where you have to now go take care of the source of their troubles and make your way to BilgeWater only to get a popup saying that in order to enter the dungeon you have to pay 500SC to unlock it (on that character/account). Would you be happy? I mean you already paid for the expansion, and now in order to even progress the story of it any further you have to pay more. That is how I perceived the question that was asked and you skirted around.

Yeah, lets just all drink the Kool-Aid and shut the heck up so as not to annoy those who can't stand hearing people give negative feedback, because in no way does that negative feedback benefit you or anyone else when its actually heard and responded to in a way that a company sees "OMG we need to fix this before our bottom line drops out from under us".

You know who I feel for? The actual paid subscribers of the game, but not because they pay more for the game than F2P (as F2P people can put just as much if not more than a subbed players paid time and SC purchases) do. No, because as a paid member they should be able to have access to content like new classes and races without further charge if they are staying current and buying the newest expansions. If there sub drops for whatever reason and they want to continue as say a Aerakyn Beastlord before they decide to sub again later then sure at that point have them pay the required F2P costs to unlock those features so they can access the race/class that is locked without being a member.

I mean at the very least paid members should be getting at least 50% off the cost for said content as long as they have been subbed for at least 3 months prior to it coming out and not the measly 10% they get (which is fine for the everyday completely cosmetic houses, mounts, gear, etc in the market).

So. I am negative with how SOE continues to choose to do things, but at the same time as a current non-subbed player (I've done my share of paid time for this game up to and then some pre/post F2P changes) my views are not just about myself and what I should get or am not getting.

I have looked at the whole picture of how the choices being made effect every type of player involved, and I'm not sorry for having an opinion that goes against what seems to be a very small % of feedback against those of us complaining.

Sorry, but I think between those complaining about current SOE pricing in this thread, on the forum, in the game chat itself far outweigh those complaining about us complaining. Those against us complaining are in fact what appears to be a minority at this point, and the big difference is (as usual) that the majority of us complaining are making thought out rationale posts with feedbacks and feelings while the majority of those against the complaining make the typical lash out, bully, attempt to intimidate others posts per the norm. I think that alone says a lot about the difference in the players.

It's more than just the cost. We were told that the wings would WORK just by dinging level 85 and it would be automatic. Huh.....its not automatic if you have to pay more than double than an appearance race. They never said the race was really going to be sold as two different versions. It's about whether or not you want to support a company that lies about what they are selling. Let's see what you say when next year they come out with an expansion that is say $360 bucks plus $600 for fluff because everyone 3/4 of the people go to another game that wants our business. Or they shut down the game completely. Usually businesses want to hear why their customers are planning on leaving. Its not whining its us saying hey SOE if you don't change your ways we are going somewhere else. Look at Netflix when they tried to increase their prices drastically, nobody NEEDED to watch movies. I am sure lots of Netflix customers called or wrote them saying hey this is not cool. When Netflix refused to do anything, massive numbers of customers bailed. Most companies are making fluff options available to customers to draw them back or keep them....not drive most of them away. All of us "whiners" never attacked any of the people okay with paying the price SOE has the right to set. Stop attacking us and just say hey SOE we are totally cool you want to charge those prices, good work...leaving us unhappy people alone. Just like SOE has the right to charge whatever they want, I have the right to state the fact that I will no longer be a paying customer.

For me, it boils down to entertainment costs, and compared to options like seeing a movie for example, eq2 is cheap entertainment. ($15 / mo) for hours of entertainment compared to ~$10 for avg 2 hour movie. Even when you add an xpac per year, buying a new Isle of Refuge (Thank you SOE), purchasing a race (IF i want to play it) it would still be cheap entertainment vs other options to keep myself entertained. Speaking of Isle of Refuge, let me buy this with SC for a Guild Hall . I want armor repair and banking on my island .

Ok. Let's take your situation. I would be very unhappy with this scenario. But, if this is the scenario we're talking about, let's bring it back to the original point of Aerakyn. IF the situation was as you describe above and here I am making my helping the spiderbears and i come to the cave that is the source of their troubles and now i get the message "you must own the Aerakyn race to progress", then I would be equally unhappy.

But - and this being my whole point - that is absolutely NOT the situation. Aerakyn are not needed for anything in the expac (nor are they referenced in it as far as i saw). You get the 100% full experience of AoM without either being an Aerakyn or having Aerakyn unlocked (just like you can get the full experience without having a Ratonga character or a Fae or a Freeblood).

Well you get the Aerakyn flight and wing appearance weapon.+ 2200

Freeblood Bats and then the claw appearance 1950+450 (Previously i remember them being bundled, maybe a house too? might have been a little more, since house)

You have/had to pay per char to get the bats/claws. If noble is account wide, then its less expensive than swarms of ****** out freebloods.

I feel much of the discontent is from the way it was hyped up before these purchase details were released. No one was expecting a vestigal, grounded aerakyn. Functional wings were a focus. People feel let down that the watered down version of the aerakyn exist, as a sort of half-hearted money grab. I would suggest ditching the "Noble Aerakyn", and making only one Aerakyn version available, while setting the package at a higher price than the original base Aerakyn (3500SC ?) while keeping it account wide..

From what the poster linked, some people weren't happy with the freeblood pricing either when it was relea. With similiar pricing on the aerakyn, and less choice for a la carte (bundle forces appearance and functional wings) compared to the freebloods, its not suprising that several years later some people are somewhat dissatisfied.

We were never told the race was coming in the expansion. We were told it would be released at the same time as the expansion. Nothing on SOE's part has changed.

The price of the expansion is the same as all of the expansions since like Kunark I think when normal expansion price went up to 39.99. We haven't had any new races added as parts of expansions since Kunark released back in 2007. The only other race that's been released since was the SC bought Freeblood that also cost 2000 SC to unlock as well as more for the accompanying fluff (house, mount, appearance weapons). Freeblood 'could' be earned for free, by playing 3 months (3x$14.99 or $38.97depending on your subscription option) plus buying Velious ($39.99), but all the fluff extras still had to be bought seperately. And if one really really wants the Aerakyn race they can get it with their free monthly SC if they are subscribers no expansion purchase necessary. So technically it works out cheaper than Freebloods did, even for people who had a yearly sub.

While I'm personally not at all happy with the lack of a pre-order discount, especially for the collector's edition, SOE hasn't really done anything to deserve all the vitriol about this expansion/race.

Having played in beta, I say this expansion definitely deserves it's pricetag more than any of the others in the past few years. It's no Faydwer or Kunark, but substantially better than expansions we've had more recently.


*editted because I forgot all about Sarnak that came with Kunark. Even still, the point stands.

@AWDOBoss
Sorry, as that is becoming a current trending request it will most likely result in a 2500-5000sc upgrade package (if they even took said requests serious) to allow your personal IoR to become guild hall capable (so long as your guild also matches the other non-payment requirements before being allowed to buy the conversion package) on your account.

In all seriousness though I'm not knocking your suggestion, and do not in any way mean to sound that way as I agree it would fun to be able to use as a form of optional guild hall. I just don't have the faith that they would do this without some absurd SC cost involved.

@Natharin agree. I don't expect to see it as a GH either. I can always dream. Regarding past expansion releases etc... I'm not really upset about spending money for gaming content in any regard. I remember being upset that even after getting Freeblood and paying for wings, i had to complete a 5 day time sync quest before I could fly . I'm hoping Aerakyn won't be strapped by some such absurdity.

No need to write an insulting post to people posting their opinions.....if it bothers you so much, "you don't want it, you don't need it", so stop reading this thread, it's that simple

Ummm....no...no...no...nope...nada...shakes my head while wondering why I bother to subscribe anymore....this is not an "I quit" moment for me...but SOE is walking a fine line as my customer loyalty continues to slip between their fingers.

I Have to say I really like the look of the new race and how you progress threw your lvls learning how to fly. but the price like wow sometimes I get the feeling that soe trying to get rid of us by hiking up the cost of everything to the point no one will be able to play . Don't get me wrong I've been playing eq2 since it started and I luv the game. But soe has to understand there's a lots of people who can't find jobs or there not getting enough hours to make enough money to buy these big purchases. But they want to play cause it relaxes them from the stress of everyday life. If you could just lower the cost a little it would help a lot of peeps that are faithful to your game and that's been here since the beginning (^3^)

Thanks For Listening
Lastkiss

“I agree Indabuff people do have the right to voice their opinions. That being said, before you rage maybe you should do the math.Unlocking the race is only 2000 sc that's not really that bad you could earn that in four months of being a member"

Rage, I don't think so. The point I made in my original post is about the discontent that has been growing as of late. I could easily afford any of this, my spending in this game reflects that. The point I made is that while it use to be fun to get the latest and greatest not so much anymore. Its just not fun to be in the game when supporting this kind of pricing cuts others that maybe are not as fortunate as I am out. If we support it, it will continue. I cant in good conscience continue to do that. I am not angry, or even upset for that matter. Its a game. Unhappy players though don't make for an enjoyable experience.

Omg.. you can NOT be serious. Does the lvl 85 standard aerakyn get the power of flight at lvl 85... or was that just BS to generate interest in the new race before shooting us all down with this crap? Noone wants to pay that much for a toon that is fully functional. This is just another way to separate the players into different classes.Those who have the money to spend..and those who don't.

The pricing is really disappointing. I would have spent $20 for the fully functional race on launch. Plus a race change potion or 2.

Also why bundle it with character slots and heroic characters instead of say... race change potions? I have 1 of each class I desire to play I would be using this to change a couple characters I don't care for the current race not making more alts to gear up.

As it stands I won't bother, race isn't that important.

Yes, this is my main problem with it. It's the deceptive phrasing used to market things. Yes, we can have Aerakyn who fly under the power of their own wings. They just neglected to mention until now that they were making a grounded version, and charging double for the only version they'd mentioned previously.

As far as not being told that Aerakyn would be included in AoM, it's again a matter of deceptive phrasing. No, it was never stated anywhere on the forums that they would be part of AoM. However, when the first bits of info about AoM were coming out during SOE Live, Aerakyn were thrown around in the same conversation. It was implied they were included, probably intentionally. When we were given more concrete information, it was stated that they would be a separately purchased feature. Again, no hint of two versions of the same race, just the enticing information about the "complete" version while studiously withholding that there would be two different versions.

It doesn't matter that the price isn't much more than a Freeblood unlock + Cloud of Bats. It's the intentional deception involved in the original description. I understand that it's a standard marketing tactic, but it's generally one used by product manufacturers that people avoid.

Yeah, because anytime i see someone that has like.. a purchased marketplace house or a bunny mount, i just immediately think: "that elitist rich snob, us working class citizens can never be that amazing!"

I wonder if the people with the Bunny mounts or Aerakyns have super secret, super posh get-togethers where they sip SC-bought champagne and laugh at the "rest of us" and how we can't even afford appearance weapons. They probably have british accents too and would turn me away from the lack of displayed bling. Truly something must be done about this class divide!

Perhaps it's time for "Occupy Qeynos"?

I'm all for fancy not-needed in-game items with price tags worth writing home about to keep this game afloat. If it means keeping the Devs on staff they have and possibly bringing 1 or 2 more in because they offer items in this new Micro-Transaction marketplace that are making them cash, yes please make more of these things.

When you went with your parents to the grocery store did they just give you everything you wanted? I log into other F2P Micro-Transaction type games and I see items priced all the way up to $60. Not for an expansion but for items! LOL This is not out of the ordinary and I hope we see more 20-60 dollar range items on the Marketplace for the EQ2 connoisseur in us all. If you make badass stuff I will buy it!

I don't cry when I go to Starbucks and I can't purchase their 2 thousand dollar Verismo machine. I also don't yell at them from the lobby and tell them they are money-scheming cash-grabbing ******** because it's 2 thousand dollars. I realize a tangible object is hard to compare to digital files but, still, it's the same concept going on here. Kind of upsetting to hear all the crap-talking people do about an item no one is required to purchase. Besides a 40 dollar fee every year for a new expansion, this game is entirely free to play and one of the best models. Sure the mailbox and chat windows are difficult to work with on a F2P account but #FirstWorldProblems I guess...

Now, stupid question, because of that elemental cure/ward, will this race be a requirement for end game raid tanks?

https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2...ucer-letter-whats-to-come-sept-to-nov.551110/

The producer's letter specifically said "The Aerakyn player race comes with built-in wings that become a flying mount at level 85 as well as custom wing-attack animations too!"

Boo, SOE, boo.