New Patch Ruins EQ-Live, Switching to P1999!

[Uteunayr]

Originally Posted by Champion_Standing [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So they are taking away the best AA farming method but giving you free AAs to make up for it, sounds like you are really get screwed here.

He wasn't referring just to AAs, he said getting to level 100 that way. Getting to level 100 without any form of swarming is incredibly long and dull, since most classes have been homogenized in terms of play style. Necromancers are weak Magicians, Rogues are Barbarians with a positioning requirement, Rangers are Rogues/Barbarians with a range requirement. But ultimately, they all play the exact same, and it is incredibly boring.

Swarming added some complexity to the game, some strategy. Sure, it takes a long time to get to max level on Project 1999 too, but support/enchanting is still a thing, soloing can still be mentally taxing rather than dull, and so on. It is a far more fun and challenging grind on P1999 than the dull "Kill 5 dogs. Turn in. Say dogs. Kill 5 dogs. Turn in. Say dogs." over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over with absolutely no variation in the camp whatsoever.

Maybe it is just me, but when I think of EverQuest when compared to other MMOs, I think about how free EverQuest lets you be with killing stuff. You can swarm stuff, you can root rot, you can charm, you can AE, and so on. You can't do most of this stuff in other MMOs, and it is what gives EQ its charm and unique appeal.

[Jfertal]

Basically what uteunayr said sums it up perfect. With 2.0 and roughly 900 aa placed in all of the right spots I was doing all of PoF c2 no problem. Sk swarm was an art and a skill especially higher levels when you received more discs.

[Menaan]

I don't see it mentioned here, but I think one of the worse things with the upcoming changes is not just the AE xp nerfing, but the true reasoning behind why they are doing it. They can claim all day long it's due to performance problems caused by it on the servers. But the truth is, they had to have some way to make it more appealing for people to buy the level 85 characters that are going to be available in the marketplace rather than just getting a character power leveled to 85 in a couple hours. I mean come on, this mass killing has been going on for years, and they are just now getting concerned with how it effects the servers.. yeah right.

So yeah, if you had not heard, coming up within a month or two, you will be able to buy any level 85 class / race you want on the marketplace. No one knows for sure what the price is yet, but it's guessed that it's probably going to be around 3500 station cash. So essentially for about 30 dollars you will have a level 85 character with max AAs (assuming you are gold subscribed, 45 if you are starting fresh on a new account and need to subscribe to gold for one month).

This is also the reason they are doing away with the auto granted 500 station cash a month for gold subscriptions. They originally tried to make it so you had to buy an item worth up to 2k each month but there was to much outrage over that, so now they are making it so you have to claim your 500 station cash each month. So they are hoping people will forget and not just get a free level 85 character every 7 months.

All of these changes are really about nothing more than money for SOE, not improving the game, or the state of the servers.

[Jimjam]

Could it be that they are using more sophisticated pathing algorithms in more sophisticated zones on the same old hardware (compounded by the fact the hardware is getting more and more bloated with having to host more and more zones)?