Patch Notes - June 12th, 2020

[Ovisha]

I haven't played this in like 2 years in any meaningful capacity aside from logging in to give my friend money and carry his trash can thru 4.3 and I am personally insulted by the removal of kind lady and the buff changes. I can only imagine how absurdly obnoxious it is to actually raid where random deaths aren't exactly uncommon and then you have to rebuff constantly. Duoing on your own, something I spent degenerate amounts of time doing would be miserable now in comparison to when I did it and it was already miserable then. Anyways buffs are stupid, they solved the problem then decided they didn't want people actually playing the game so they broke it again. Every time I pop in to read patch notes Im pretty sure its just a game to see what garbage people will put up with because there isn't anything quite like sod. As a side note in many hours playing my shaman aside from recasting river keeper and gender illusioning to get rid of the form Im pretty sure I have one set of spells loaded and never look at a book ever.

 

[Rarok]

Is the buff change really that bad? Why was Kind Lady even added?

Recent changes just seem like attempts to quell the insane power people have gotten up to. It is actually not very fun to watch a whole zone get pulled and then slaughtered by some guy who has been playing for 5+ years.

 

[Tevinter]

Is the buff change really that bad? Why was Kind Lady even added?

Recent changes just seem like attempts to quell the insane power people have gotten up to. It is actually not very fun to watch a whole zone get pulled and then slaughtered by some guy who has been playing for 5+ years.

the same exact thing still happens except it takes a little longer to kill and you feel worse about it

 

[Rarok]

the same exact thing still happens except it takes a little longer to kill and you feel worse about it

No one said they were done. We will see what happens!

 

[Fields/Balty]

Is the buff change really that bad? Why was Kind Lady even added?

Recent changes just seem like attempts to quell the insane power people have gotten up to. It is actually not very fun to watch a whole zone get pulled and then slaughtered by some guy who has been playing for 5+ years.

Yes see responses above. KL was added as a holiday thing that stuck around for a while.

Why quell the power just make more content. The game is so old now anything below T10 doesn't die often outside of duos/1groups. You weren't complaining about that the other day in Kaesora...

 

[defixio]

when kind lady was put in, there was also a Covid Xp bonus. almost our entire raidforce were created or 'new' in that period. they got on, xped like crazy, used their buffs and 'caught up' to raid content. like 20 people earned their 5th seeker and CoP bonus and were dutifully punching away at their character progression.

then the xp bonus was removed so a good half the xpers stopped xping because it felt so slow. Then buffs were removed and suddenly folks could no longer duo what they used to, or it took longer. the aa change made it cost more to "buy back" what you previously earned than you could purchase. the cherry on top was nerfing the incredibly long remnants quest, which brought a lot of people together to do the insane mass farming needed.

so now we have a lot of people who signed on and played with one experience, now getting another. most of them are now past the point where they have to xp to progress, so they simply don't. the net result is less xp groups, less new player enthusiasm, and less old players interested in helping new players. It's something of a baffling change for a server hungry for new population. Any number of minor adjustments would have satisfied folks, but...they wern't done.

note that the changes didn't really rub me the wrong way. I like the tome > aa change, i even "didn't re-buy" a few things i had grinded up that i'm indifferent about to finish off tomes i wanted. I even farmed up all but literally 3 tomes/opus i needed. i had like 30 of them in my bank when the patch went through. The buff duo/solo thing didn't really effect me because i'm a chanter and my lot in life is to lay around sighing until a group takes me some where anyway. The xp thing didn't hit me so hard because i'm super lazy and rarely actively grind xp.

I'm just reporting what i'm seeing from folks around me and the effect it has on enthusiasm. seems like we'd want enthusiasm.

 

[Draeos]

there needs to be a growing pains bonus while we switch over to the vision, bonus charm credits and xp, enhanced chance at a 3rd loot off raid bosses.

 

[cornelweezy]

there needs to be a growing pains bonus while we switch over to the vision, bonus charm credits and xp, enhanced chance at a 3rd loot off raid bosses.

At least this much. Drops and more dramatic player bonuses tied to in game holy days. More auto-scheduled events like the war that end in bosses for loots (again, perhaps tied to holy days or seasons around holy days).

Could expand on the massively underutilized house system (a personalized instance) for individual character perks like soulbound consumables and lore augs. World drops or even non raid exp camp based drops that can be turned in somewhere limitlessly at 65 for massive exp, coin, or fame would incentivize more non raid play. There are tons of "gather" type quests throughout the levels from bandit coin purses to liodreth paws, scale one of those for the 65 duos set back by the buff changes.

 

[defixio]

there needs to be a growing pains bonus while we switch over to the vision, bonus charm credits and xp, enhanced chance at a 3rd loot off raid bosses.

yea i was a little confused that they didn't refund ground tomes with bonus aa on top (to cover any weird discrepancies), and then put out a phat xp bonus for a month to emphesize the joy of grinding out aa again.

At least this much. Drops and more dramatic player bonuses tied to in game holy days. More auto-scheduled events like the war that end in bosses for loots (again, perhaps tied to holy days or seasons around holy days).

it would be interesting to see an automated cycle of of events lend bonuses to motivate players. linking it to holy days is interesting.

I had a concept in my noggin for a "player controlled" blessed zone system. I could write it up if any dev actually wants to see it. i figured no one would wanna work on it so i never put it to text.

 

[Deein]

I had a concept in my noggin for a "player controlled" blessed zone system. I could write it up if any dev actually wants to see it. i figured no one would wanna work on it so i never put it to text.

Blessed zones was intended to be used for zones with little to no use. Keep that in mind.

 

[Deein]

there needs to be a growing pains bonus while we switch over to the vision, bonus charm credits and xp, enhanced chance at a 3rd loot off raid bosses.

There is a global Bonus charm credit and preferential blessed zone exp has been a thing. Glad you're liking the changes .

 

[defixio]

Blessed zones was intended to be used for zones with little to no use. Keep that in mind.

yea i had an angle for that.

 

[swaggs_sod]

when kind lady was put in, there was also a Covid Xp bonus. almost our entire raidforce were created or 'new' in that period. they got on, xped like crazy, used their buffs and 'caught up' to raid content. like 20 people earned their 5th seeker and CoP bonus and were dutifully punching away at their character progression.

While the Kind Lady and xp bonus didn't resolve all of the pains of being a scrub on SoD, they at least eased the pain of what feels like arbitrary time gates. I remember when <Insanity> disbanded being told by a handful of players that if I wanted to play my warrior or rogue and joined a guild to get carried, I could probably have a supreme and most of my tomes done within a year or year and a half. The downside is I'd most likely need to adventure band them with either my cleric or someone's alt and pretty much just leach xp off their adventure band. Just hearing that from a handful of players removed any excitement I had to continue playing the game.

I remember leveling my warrior and cleric in January of 2020 with the Kind Lady + holiday xp and it felt amazing. At the time, there was a progression guild being formed and it definitely brought back a handful of people. I could log on at any time, start or join a group, and just grind for hours. We didn't care what classes were in the group because the buffs weren't an issue anymore. It was just socializing and grinding Hate for gear.

Playing my warrior and cleric on SoD was one of the most enjoyable times I've had playing EverQuest. I really hoped to one day raid on a rogue or maybe my warrior but it just doesn't seem realistic. Groups are too scarce and I really dislike having to leach xp just to progress.

I could be entirely wrong and nothing I posted is factual. Maybe the game just isn't a good fit for me now that I'm older and starting a family.

TLDR: The Kind Lady and holiday xp rates due to the bonus made SoD so fun but won't entice new players or retain them once they realize how much they have to do.