The End?

[Lorekeeper]

I'm curious what you all think about Sony's decision to put Heroic Characters in.

Me, well, I quite think its one of the worse idea's they've ever done and honestly has driven me away to where I don't even want to log on because the zones are so crowded.

 

[hawthorne]

Completely disagree. For the game to survive it needs players. This is exactly the kind of thing to bring some people back and get them playing, and spending, again. The game is 15 years old and definitely use all the help it can get.

If you want to see how things are likely to shake out, have a look at EQ2. Now, it's strictly anecdotal but from what I have seen there, heroic characters has allowed the playerbase to shift towards the later expansions and brought back a decent amount of people who stayed. There were more at first of course but more stayed than I expected.

Decisions like these are meant to give people a choice in how they play. They can spend the 35 bucks and get a toon that will be able to participate in heroic adventures right away, or they can do it the old fashioned way. The choice is theirs. They still have to buy the expansion as well, so SOE is looking at $65 for any new account HCs that want to participate in the latest content. It's a very sound business decision.

Your attitude seems to be fairly selfish. You are perfectly entitled to feel how you want, but you may want to consider the health of the game, and not just your personal disappointment. But that's entirely your call.

 

[zdozbou]

I think it is and will be very beneficial for the game.

If you want empty zones, you should look into transfering to Trakanon.

 

[Gumball]

The game really starts at level 90 now days, so why not at least push people up to 85 as fast as possible. Not that it takes very long to get up there (with some help at least), but it is a waste of time.

A good move in my opinion and I am sure it will encurage a few more to try out new classes etc and pay to play a bit longer.

All in all I am sure it is a win win situation for the gamers and Sony (it is almost weird they had to think this long to make this move).

 

[SiegeTank]

I think it's a good move but I also think they' should take some steps to populate the 90% of the zones in the game which are still empty most of the time even with a big surge in 85+ level players. When you think about this, it's really weird that a game like EQ has literally hundreds of the zones and the vast majority are always empty except for the rare player passing through or perhaps a high level pharming a twink item. It's such a waste.

What to do, what to do? I have some ideas but I'm sure the devs could up with some, if they put their minds to it. The hard work has all been done, designing and programming. All that's left is to incentivize playing in those zones.

 

[CapriiRecords]

Completely disagree. For the game to survive it needs players. This is exactly the kind of thing to bring some people back and get them playing, and spending, again. The game is 15 years old and definitely use all the help it can get.

If you want to see how things are likely to shake out, have a look at EQ2. Now, it's strictly anecdotal but from what I have seen there, heroic characters has allowed the playerbase to shift towards the later expansions and brought back a decent amount of people who stayed. There were more at first of course but more stayed than I expected.

Decisions like these are meant to give people a choice in how they play. They can spend the 35 bucks and get a toon that will be able to participate in heroic adventures right away, or they can do it the old fashioned way. The choice is theirs. They still have to buy the expansion as well, so SOE is looking at $65 for any new account HCs that want to participate in the latest content. It's a very sound business decision.

Your attitude seems to be fairly selfish. You are perfectly entitled to feel how you want, but you may want to consider the health of the game, and not just your personal disappointment. But that's entirely your call.

Completely agree. I'm really blown away by people that are against this. The population has been in rapid decline, if that continues, your game is shut down and you're not playing anyway. Higher population adds to revenue, in turn adds to content, and adds to the experience. People that want nothing more than to sit in empty zones with their 6 boxes, should probably think about an emulated server.

 

[hawthorne]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

 

[Lorekeeper]

I guess you could ultimately call it selfish. I like to get on and farm without worrying however at 3am last night there were 50 people in the zone I' go to compared to maybe 10 when 6 are me. The biggest problem I see is plat inflation.

 

[William12]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

playing or subbing ? Playing easily over 150k. Subbing ? No idea. EQ has more players then EQ2 at this point.

Also on topic. You hate the game now because more people are playing ? I would suggest skyrim or an Elder Scrolls RPG. Did you forget what MMO means in MMORPG ?

 

[evilbarney]

it must be a good idea i mean blizzard is copying it and hell it was stolen from ultima online =P

 

[Lorekeeper]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

playing or subbing ? Playing easily over 150k. Subbing ? No idea. EQ has more players then EQ2 at this point.

Also on topic. You hate the game now because more people are playing ? I would suggest skyrim or an Elder Scrolls RPG. Did you forget what MMO means in MMORPG ?

Let's hold off on the smart ass remarks for a minute.

My concern is the fact that a game, is selling their own characters. My also main concern is over - population of certain zones, I don't mean 40 people in Grounds I mean well over 75. I enjoy getting home at 4:30 in the morning and spending some time being able to exp. Either way the fact is that they're actually selling characters. EverQuest came out being a game that you worked your way to the top, always, if anyone played back in Kunark you remember these times. The times of stomping your computer through the floor. WoW did this, it had plenty of people return, get bored, and quit.

 

[William12]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

playing or subbing ? Playing easily over 150k. Subbing ? No idea. EQ has more players then EQ2 at this point.

Also on topic. You hate the game now because more people are playing ? I would suggest skyrim or an Elder Scrolls RPG. Did you forget what MMO means in MMORPG ?

Let's hold off on the smart ass remarks for a minute.

My concern is the fact that a game, is selling their own characters. My also main concern is over - population of certain zones, I don't mean 40 people in Grounds I mean well over 75. I enjoy getting home at 4:30 in the morning and spending some time being able to exp. Either way the fact is that they're actually selling characters. EverQuest came out being a game that you worked your way to the top, always, if anyone played back in Kunark you remember these times. The times of stomping your computer through the floor. WoW did this, it had plenty of people return, get bored, and quit.

Go create one man these toons are weak and utterly useless. It is a great idea to get new people involved without the huge thought of catching up. Frankly anything that gets more people playing and subbing is good for EQ. This game is 15 years old they need to do what they can to get people playing.

 

[zdozbou]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

playing or subbing ? Playing easily over 150k. Subbing ? No idea. EQ has more players then EQ2 at this point.

Also on topic. You hate the game now because more people are playing ? I would suggest skyrim or an Elder Scrolls RPG. Did you forget what MMO means in MMORPG ?

Let's hold off on the smart ass remarks for a minute.

My concern is the fact that a game, is selling their own characters. My also main concern is over - population of certain zones, I don't mean 40 people in Grounds I mean well over 75. I enjoy getting home at 4:30 in the morning and spending some time being able to exp. Either way the fact is that they're actually selling characters. EverQuest came out being a game that you worked your way to the top, always, if anyone played back in Kunark you remember these times. The times of stomping your computer through the floor. WoW did this, it had plenty of people return, get bored, and quit.

Have you considered transfering to Trakanon? It's a very empty server, with very empty zones. There's always eqemu also if you're wanting to take the social aspect out of EQ.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

playing or subbing ? Playing easily over 150k. Subbing ? No idea. EQ has more players then EQ2 at this point.

Also on topic. You hate the game now because more people are playing ? I would suggest skyrim or an Elder Scrolls RPG. Did you forget what MMO means in MMORPG ?

Let's hold off on the smart ass remarks for a minute.

My concern is the fact that a game, is selling their own characters. My also main concern is over - population of certain zones, I don't mean 40 people in Grounds I mean well over 75. I enjoy getting home at 4:30 in the morning and spending some time being able to exp. Either way the fact is that they're actually selling characters. EverQuest came out being a game that you worked your way to the top, always, if anyone played back in Kunark you remember these times. The times of stomping your computer through the floor. WoW did this, it had plenty of people return, get bored, and quit.

Have you considered transfering to Trakanon? It's a very empty server, with very empty zones. There's always eqemu also if you're wanting to take the social aspect out of EQ.

I actually did, but for some reason Sony still has Trakanon locked from character transfers.

 

[SiegeTank]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

1557 zones includes instances and I'm not saying they need a group in each and every zone! Here, for example, is one suggestion. It's not all mine since I read something like this on allakhazam but I'm spinning off from that guy's idea:

Introduce quests, or missions, which require a lower level group of ALL players (no mercs, no boxes, etc.) and the reward is a top-notch High-level item, not tradeable but flagged heirloom, so you can move it to your high-level main on the same account.

So, for example, a 3200 HEM piece of gear which is a potential reward for a level 50 mission in Grieg's End, or 40 in Permafrost, or 30 in Kaesora, or 20 in Unrest or 12 in Crushbone, etc. The low level toon loots it but then can transfer it to his level 95-100 main. Sony devs have traditionally always tried to make high-end gear raid-dependent, or incredibly difficult or rare to obtain via group effort, and they could maintain the challenge just by requiring the group here to tackle a very difficult higher-level mob in the zone.

They already have built in code analogous to this in how they handle raids on Lady Vox where any player above level 52 gets banished the moment they engage. If the missions were instanced they could simply deny entrance to any player above appropriate level. None of this would be new or particularly hard to implement.

Unlikely to happen, alas but nice to think about it, hehe.

 

[Lorekeeper]

Siegetank, I honestly don't think that's feasible.
Look at this: https://assets-cdn.soe.com/uploads/dcsclient/000/000/052/321.jpg?v=0.0

That says there are 1557 zones in the game. To get 1 group in each zone would take close to 10,000 people per server. I honestly would be surprised if there are more than 30,000 people playing EQ right now. Of course they don't release numbers so it could be 300,000 but I don't get that feeling.

1557 zones includes instances and I'm not saying they need a group in each and every zone! Here, for example, is one suggestion. It's not all mine since I read something like this on allakhazam but I'm spinning off from that guy's idea:

Introduce quests, or missions, which require a lower level group of ALL players (no mercs, no boxes, etc.) and the reward is a top-notch High-level item, not tradeable but flagged heirloom, so you can move it to your high-level main on the same account.

So, for example, a 3200 HEM piece of gear which is a potential reward for a level 50 mission in Grieg's End, or 40 in Permafrost, or 30 in Kaesora, or 20 in Unrest or 12 in Crushbone, etc. The low level toon loots it but then can transfer it to his level 95-100 main. Sony devs have traditionally always tried to make high-end gear raid-dependent, or incredibly difficult or rare to obtain via group effort, and they could maintain the challenge just by requiring the group here to tackle a very difficult higher-level mob in the zone.

They already have built in code analogous to this in how they handle raids on Lady Vox where any player above level 52 gets banished the moment they engage. If the missions were instanced they could simply deny entrance to any player above appropriate level. None of this would be new or particularly hard to implement.

Unlikely to happen, alas but nice to think about it, hehe.

I agree completely.

I do like how the revamp unrest, crushbone, etc for higher level but I wish they had an instance for max levels in these zones.

 

[Copperhead]

Dont worry, once the nostalgia wears off, well over half of these folks who returned to check the game out, will go MIA again and the zones will be thinned out once more. Always happens.

Folks tend to come back when something "new" hits the game, play for a while, then rediscover what made them MIA/quit in the first place and quit again. These changes wont create a lot of staying power where hooking returning players are concerned. When the dust settles, the veterans that have been playing all along will be the only ones left enjoying/taking advantage of these Heroic Character changes. You'll start seeing a lot of new boxes crop up in the coming weeks. Veterans adding a new class or two to their box army and so on.

Also, I laugh at anyone who says that the changes will help people along. People that were bad at XPing/progressing before these changes, will continue to have issues XPing/progressing after these changes. Besides, the bottleneck level range for these folks was always level 85 anyway. A lot of the folks that I saw struggling, were already in that level 80-85 range to begin with. So all this change does, is stick returning players into the troubled level area when they create a Heroic Character. They'll just quit again after a while. Besides, this Heroic Character business is already breeding bad players. Im seeing first time level 85s not having a clue regarding what to do with their class and asking retarded questions in General Chat and people are pretty much calling them noobs and getting uppity over it. Its Monster Mission Babies v2.0 - Its pretty much turning that level 85 range into an epic circus clown mess. A lot of fail is happening. But it'll be short term as I stated in the first paragraph.

In essence, level 85 is the new level 1.

 

[supertimmy]

i agree with william that anything to get more people playing is a good idea, but i also suspect copper is on the money and a huge percentage of these nostalgia hunters will bail in short order.

herioc characters are a complete win for me. i'll pay 3200 station cash on every toon i create to not have to do don and mpg for the billionth time.

 

[nbkanvz]

When I first saw this title I thought we were discussing that movie this is the end, lol.

I like the changes EQ has made. As far for the 'crowded' zones it is also double xp weekend so might take that into account and also the fact that these characters just dropped so things will balance out soon.

 

[William12]

I like the changes and the hook is the raid level drops in group content. (they're prestige) You have to sub or use a krono otherwise you cannot use the gear. They will get more free accounts going to subs from that then they will get from new players making heroic toons.