The "Tuning" of the Game [EQ]Follow

I've snipped this comment of Cjguy's as I've seen a lot like it over the years:



A background confession: I'm a casual alt-hololic that didn't enjoy the raid-aspect of this game at closer-to-end-game content years ago, so I have been behind ever since. The last 7 years I have mostly soloed, with the occasional foray into a fun family guild. When I first played, I quit a week in Omens of War because I felt like my class (enchanter) was broken and the content was ridiculous. From my perspective at the time it is fair to say it was. So I could easily have posted something like what I quoted above.

But... if OoW had been easy for me (in my way underdeveloped character, soloing or inadequate grouping of similarly played characters) then the expac would have been completely trivial to the more dedicated playerbase (in the sense of character progress, not love of the game or time spent).

So fast-forward that idea ahead to today:

I dislike the summoning mechanic for non-uber boss mobs, but the devs decided long ago this was there way of preventing certain classes from soloing way above their heads. (Necro is my longest played main in the game, trust me I hate summoning). It's basically their "this is group content" label. Level 85 is within grouping range of current cap... but getting far enough that it is part of the hotzone cycle now. Hotzoning being the devs inelegant fix for "bad xp grinding to get to population". It lets us solo the lowest con trash we can for decent xp.

Nobody has to box. Nobody has to powerlevel. Nobody even has to group to skim the edge of the more-current content, but ultimately if one wants to progress in the up to date content when it is current one has to group (and if you want the good stuff you have to raid). This was actually worse Kunark to PoP than it is now in my view (except that a lot of really good stuff was tradable up till Velious). Any class that is well-played can solo up to 75 in TSS. Using a merc makes that speedy for even the most otherwise tedious of classes.

Could they do some work extending the TSS approach to a few zones so the chain clearly goes 76-95? Yes they could.

The problem they've been arguing internally about (we've seen drips of it publicly over the years on the official boards such as in Elidroth's threads) is how to make it even easier for the player types that solo without the advantages to catch up without making it "too easy" for the people that use/have access to the advantages. AA count is really the crux of this gap (they've given us stupidly overpowered gear, and a decent spell system).

So it comes down to the individual player's wants. I long ago decided that I will enjoy each characters' journey and not care how far I take them (really helps with the alts). If I got serious about a character I would join an active guild. I would use vet rewards, hotzones, xp pots, mercs and group with much higher levels as a level 61 (as in take the friendly power-level so that I actually am useful to my guildmates in a group rather than just a leech) and get myself up to the content where they need me to actually play. This would mean buying the new expacs though...

Yes I do have frustration but think it is the fact that as a person who cannot afford to box, play another game I felt left behind. I would love to group with ours but when trying to get people to group is like going to the dentist to have half your teeth removed painful. Seems like a lot of people box and power level which is fine but when you want to group so you can explore, old and new content yes that becomes very boring and annoying. I understand the group content and aspect of the game.

I just wish there were area as a person who solo mobs were worth the time and effort to kill exp and gear wise: I know this would lead to some problems as plane of fire at usually a level 100 mage or ranger swarming the zone. My frustration is why did I spend time getting flags, just to have them be removed and getting nothing for my efforts why do I have over half of the leadership points purchased which I have heard they will be removed in the future.

I have stated and not alone if there has to be mercs wish they were half as powerful and one merc per 5 group that way maybe some people might be more inclined to group. I think it would be interesting to see one or two servers where there was no mercs just to see how many would play on it and I am not taking about what people are telling me in tells 1999 if you get the hint.

I will try to choose my words more wisely, try to keep my sentence structure in better order that way people can read it understand what I am trying to convey and maybe just stop posting for awhile and enjoy eq the best way I can.

~
You know, if someone with that kind of experience were announcing in General or OOC they were putting together an old school POP flagging party, I'd be inclined to group up.

~
Completely off-topic:

I've always liked Gunthak and Dulaks. Even Nadox has its charm. Torigan could get a little wonky with mob pathing -- but that's just EQ. :-DI didn't run a whole lot of Hate's Fury but the few times we ventured in, I wasn't disappointed.

Edited, Jan 7th 2014 4:09pm by nekokirei

Honestly, I think that the changes they've made have made it much easier on the casual/solo player. I get that you want "the old days" when everyone had to group to succeed, but to be honest, those old days weren't really that great. As long as boxing is possible, people will box and those who can't/wont will end out being lonely at any but the highest levels. Mercs and defiant were added specifically because in their absence, people weren't able to obtain sufficient gear to advance in the game through the mid levels without boxing or PLing. Those changes were made specifically for the casual player. I'm not sure how taking them away will help.


I guess what I'm saying is that I don't think people will respond to the absence of those things by grouping up like in the good ole days. They'll just box their way through, or not play. Which is precisely what was happening which caused those changes in the first place.

There lays the problem I have been back now going on 5 months and m necro has been stuck at 87 because going to old bloodfields or any other content mobs summons and your dead. I gave pet all mage level 100 gear, using pet focusitem, j5 merc and pet stiil cannot hardly tank mobs and xp dark blue mobs is taking forever.

yes a group would be nice but no one does that which is one of my major complains and frustrations. I am happy they have gear for lower end people never desired them to take them away just wish mercs if had to extist were limited in the way they were used that way some people might actually group instead of totally depending on mercs.

Sad that people have to power level and box in the first place. I always thought eq was a game where you meet people, socialized, went on quests, killed together and enjoyed the game but the way it is now I might as well be playing guild wars which I have no desire to do.

Edited, Jan 7th 2014 6:04pm by cjguy

I think you might just have gotten used to a much faster exp gain rate. Things do slow down in the high 80s IMO. Depends on your class as to where the specific break points are. You may just have found one with your necro. Have you tried fighting lower level mobs? I've found that it's often faster to blow through large numbers of lt blues than fighting blue mobs, especially where there's an expansion difference involved. And yeah, exp rate slows down.



I agree with your objective, but I just don't think that this will produce the results you want. If mercs are not tuned sufficiently to allow people to be able to solo with them, then people will tend to just move away from the game rather than go through the frustration of trying to find a group every time they want to play. It's why they created mercs in the first place. Even if you do have a group of folks (like say a guild) that you can play with, it is nice to at least have the option of doing something solo if you want. Even back in the day, when I was in a very active guild, I distinctly remember being hampered by playing a class that couldn't solo well. That factor is much more prevalent today than it was back then.



Interestingly enough, I've found that I interact with people more today than I did during the time period prior to quitting last time (basically prior to mercs). I can solo my characters if I want, but I actually find myself joining groups more often now if for no other reason than there's actually people around now, and sometimes they get bored soloing. Also, mercs make it so that you don't have to have the holy trinity available to form a group (cause you can make them up with mercs). If I run into any random other player of any class and we feel like grouping up, we can, and it doesn't feel like we've gimped ourselves by doing so.

As an example. Prior to mercs, if I was soloing with my wizard, and I ran into an enchanter who was soloing, there's no way we would ever form a group. Those two classes have radically different soloing methodologies, and grouping together doesn't really synergize. But with mercs? One of us popped a tank, one popped a healer, and we proceeded to pull and mez and nuke the hell out of a whole area and had a blast doing it. So mercs can actually make it easier to form groups. You just have to go out and ask folks. I've been surprised actually how often some random person is willing to group up. It's not like the old days where you'd regret grouping because the tank went afk 5 minutes after you joined, then the cleric bailed, then you waited 20 minutes for a replacement to show up, only to have him insist that you all pick up and follow him to some "much better hunting spot", and a dozen other annoyances that inevitably occurred.


Dunno. I just think that in addition to making sure that every single time I log in I can at least accomplish something (even if it's just doing a couple dailies and burning LoD), it also makes it easier to form ad-hoc groups with random people I meet. At the very least, I don't see how reducing the power or stacking of mercs will make people group more. I just think it'll drive people to either box or quit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handicapping

Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning.

The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated. In principle, a more experienced player is disadvantaged in order to make it possible for a less experienced player to participate in the game or sport whilst maintaining fairness.

Handicapping also refers to the various methods by which spectators can predict and quantify the results of a sporting match.(...)


Variations of the above descriptions are ever-present in EQ. We handicap by grouping, by using merc, by twinking gear and with AA distribution. EQ is tidal force, soloists cannot hope to win by swimming directly into the current. Choose an alternate course, revisit AA and hope for the best.

My characters usually end up at bind, but hey, that's half the fun.

Hahahahaha...hence all the corpses you see piled up in the LOY expansion on Cazic by me....

Nope...Gladly..

Gratz on guru Nekokirei.

Edited, Jan 8th 2014 3:57pm by hexeez

wow gratz on Guru ,man!!

~
Isn't there something coming where we'll be able to create a, I guess like a lvl 85 toon with level appropriate gear and some AA to avoid some of what Fronglo's points out?

I know I am facing that dilemma right now my ranger at level 73 just hit 1000 AA and been told are 11000 AA total, I dislike the grind my

self but it is a necessary one. I have people all the time to goto level 80 and I will have a better chance at groups and better gear. I want all

the AA I can out of the way first is my idea because 1) easier to grind AA now, 2) if I do goto a zone where mobs happen to summons better

gear will help but will need the AA to go with it so I have a chance at tanking the mob. The Old Blood Fields is level 80 or 85 hot zone which

my experience a lot of the mobs do infact summons heard half the mobs at 80 or higher do summons so my idea at getting better gear along

the way along with AA will be the opportunity to survive.