Discussion - Current expansion (NOS) actually drives adoption of automation. (1 Viewer)

[B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y]

The methods used to obtain loot in Night of Shadows makes the use of automation almost mandatory.

They did two specific things that made gearing up a real job-like slog in this expansion. 1.) Slot-dependent drops! 2.) Insane scarcity!

Seriously Daybreak, if you wanted to find a way to drive people into Redguide's arms then you did a good job of it! I've seen people disengaging because they don't believe they'll ever see certain drops which they want, and they don't have the time or group-power to camp all the places they'd need to camp. Some of those people will quit the game but hopefully there will be some that discover Redguide's MQ.

 

[Kookies]

And the grinding of the cloak...

 

[Shadow]

I still do not have the expansions, and am waiting to see if it gets better in December with the newest expac to where I can skip NoS completely. Cloak be damned.

 

[Gohast]

It seems to be their current MO. Increased grind to maintain player base without the need to create more content. The entire premise of the upcoming TLP to to reward ALT creation. Who the hell is creating alts on TLPs that only last a year? They remain tone deaf to the wants of their community.

 

[2ndGoat]

It seems to be their current MO. Increased grind to maintain player base without the need to create more content. The entire premise of the upcoming TLP to to reward ALT creation. Who the hell is creating alts on TLPs that only last a year? They remain tone deaf to the wants of their community.

This, plus they're resource-limited (partially of their own making, partially due to the growth of competition in the industry in the last 20 years) so they're hammering out relatively easy-to-do product to keep a little bit of revenue flowing.

 

[Dragonslayer]

@B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y : that's exact the feeling I have about NOS. My main group meets 5 days a week in the evening for 2 ours. We do zone by zone anything available. Actually we are still in the shar-vals pit in order to attempt, to finish hunter.
Apart from the points you mentioned, my feeling is, that the spawnrate of nameds have been reduced by margins.
5 ppl of this group are the same since atleast 15 years. This expansion may be the one, making this group to fall apart.

 

[Gringo3]

Live in general seems to be built with automation in mind. I leveled up a new SK to 120 + 20k AA (so about 60k AA spent) in about a week. Talked to a few lvl 120 guildies, still sitting at about 40k-45k AA for months. You cant max AA while playing without macroquest.

 

[GoldenFrog]

I slightly disagree here. I don't like the scarcity of named, etc. And it is definitely a step backwards from recent patterns.

But it isn't new for EQ - I spent a week in Sverag after that BiS aug from Soulfury Embermeer. Pre-automation for me. And it was by far not my longest camp and rarest drop. Many, many long camps.

And I get we're trying to progress, but the reality is that the designers are trying to find ways to fill out the year. People finish the expansion in 1-3 months. Then what? Many servers are ghost towns until next November.


No, I don't like exactly how they did it but it's a serious juggling act they have. How to stretch their limited resources to drive reasons for people to stay in the game longer.

It's why I think things like the Artisan's Earring was brilliant. 20 hours of designers time generated hundreds of hours of "Content".
And Hunters, Slayers, and all the rest of the Achievements.

 

[Kambic]

It's why I think things like the Artisan's Earring was brilliant. 20 hours of designers time generated hundreds of hours of "Content".
And Hunters, Slayers, and all the rest of the Achievements.

Definitely agree with this. I hope at some point they'll go back and add rewards to every achievement, even if they are extremely marginal, so there's tangible value in completing them.

 

[Many_Whelps]

The only reason I got hunter done at all is because my guild did a raid format during the bonus periods where we were able to cover multiple zones simultaneously. We could force a pick to spawn when we needed and we told people to stay logged in for credit even if you had to stop paying for the night. It still took almost 24 hours of straight killing to get the Scorched Bones skeleton to spawn in Shadeweavers while keeping down every PH across 2 picks.

I feel bad for our members that weren't able to be online because they're making almost zero progress now without a bonus nor a raid format to get some extra check boxes. It's getting harder and harder to form groups when you're unlikely to get any named at all in an average game session. It makes you want to give up completely and go do something more productive than EQ. This isn't content, IMO. It's just a giant middle finger to your player base.

So yeah, if they wonder why people want to automate this shit, it should be pretty obvious.

 

[durango773]

The only reason I got hunter done at all is because my guild did a raid format during the bonus periods where we were able to cover multiple zones simultaneously. We could force a pick to spawn when we needed and we told people to stay logged in for credit even if you had to stop paying for the night. It still took almost 24 hours of straight killing to get the Scorched Bones skeleton to spawn in Shadeweavers while keeping down every PH across 2 picks.

I feel bad for our members that weren't able to be online because they're making almost zero progress now without a bonus nor a raid format to get some extra check boxes. It's getting harder and harder to form groups when you're unlikely to get any named at all in an average game session. It makes you want to give up completely and go do something more productive than EQ. This isn't content, IMO. It's just a giant middle finger to your player base.

So yeah, if they wonder why people want to automate this shit, it should be pretty obvious.

The you get your cloak and need 8k kills for group, 16k for raid to evolve. GL hand players

 

[Many_Whelps]

The you get your cloak and need 8k kills for group, 16k for raid to evolve. GL hand players

Yep. You basically need a pre-made group (clique) that will agree to meet semi regularly all year long to get it done. If you're relying on pugs, forget about it.

 

[dewey2461]

They have used the same XP model for the last 7+ expansions.

XP required to level goes up 10% while XP granted from kills stays the same.

They know its broken. That's why they added the percentage based XP rewards from achievements and overseer.