A Solution for the XP Changes?

[swedago]

<p>For those of us that do not wish to level in "Easy Mode", and who wish to enjoy all the game content....</p><p>Is there a way that we can have a 2nd XP Lock option that allows us to do quests and not jump through levels? </p><p>I personally like to do all the content.  I like to do all the raidzones without a raid of 80s mentored to level 50 to create no challange.</p><p>My entire guild is level locked to do as I just mentioned.  However, with this new XP modification, the only way for us not to level our main raid toons is to:</p><p>A) Make alts</p><p>B) Hide in the tradeskill Instance</p><p>C) Stop Playing</p><p>D) Stop Questing</p><p>E) Stay in your in game house</p><p>Some sort of solution would allow those of us that do not agree that leveling fast is fun would be very much appreciated. </p>

[Daedalus Raistlin]

I second this. As you can see from my sig, I like to take my time.I know of a guildie who disables combat XP, and would probably want to disable quest XP as well. He takes it slowly and does as much content as he can find, and I bet this increase will annoy him a lot.I haven't played on live yet to see how the XP effects me, but I think I would like an option to disable quest XP too so I don't outlevel everything.

[Zarador]

Then...the solution for those that find leveling too boring...<ul><li>Join an exchange server, purchase a level 80 character, log into end game.</li><li>Check a web site to determine which of your 50 AA's will be best at level 80.</li><li>Spend 10 hours in the newbie zones getting fishing up to cap.</li><li>Get attacked and The Commonlands where you spend 2 hours getting your combat skills up.</li><li>Get to 80 to discover that Adept I spells/arts don't really hold up so well and that 2 plat you earned in your week of leveling to 80 won't buy very many upgrades.</li></ul>If you think leveling is dull, try catching up on skills and gaining AA's while doing trivial content.  On a good day, my level 71 Warden who is behind on her crushing can get about 1-2 skill ups off green heroic mobs.  Keeping in mind that this is only doing Melee on the mob and takes about two minutes a kill.

[Daedalus Raistlin]

<cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then...the solution for those that find leveling too boring...<ul><li>Join an exchange server, purchase a level 80 character, log into end game.</li><li>Check a web site to determine which of your 50 AA's will be best at level 80.</li><li>Spend 10 hours in the newbie zones getting fishing up to cap.</li><li>Get attacked and The Commonlands where you spend 2 hours getting your combat skills up.</li><li>Get to 80 to discover that Adept I spells/arts don't really hold up so well and that 2 plat you earned in your week of leveling to 80 won't buy very many upgrades.</li></ul>If you think leveling is dull, try catching up on skills and gaining AA's while doing trivial content.  On a good day, my level 71 Warden who is behind on her crushing can get about 1-2 skill ups off green heroic mobs.  Keeping in mind that this is only doing Melee on the mob and takes about two minutes a kill. </blockquote>I'm not sure what you mean by this.My understanding is that this thread was about slowing down the levelling, by adding the ability to disable quest experience just like we can with combat experience.

[Zarador]

<cite>Daedalus Raistlin wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote>Then...the solution for those that find leveling too boring...<ul><li>Join an exchange server, purchase a level 80 character, log into end game.</li><li>Check a web site to determine which of your 50 AA's will be best at level 80.</li><li>Spend 10 hours in the newbie zones getting fishing up to cap.</li><li>Get attacked and The Commonlands where you spend 2 hours getting your combat skills up.</li><li>Get to 80 to discover that Adept I spells/arts don't really hold up so well and that 2 plat you earned in your week of leveling to 80 won't buy very many upgrades.</li></ul>If you think leveling is dull, try catching up on skills and gaining AA's while doing trivial content.  On a good day, my level 71 Warden who is behind on her crushing can get about 1-2 skill ups off green heroic mobs.  Keeping in mind that this is only doing Melee on the mob and takes about two minutes a kill. </blockquote>I'm not sure what you mean by this.My understanding is that this thread was about slowing down the levelling, by adding the ability to disable quest experience just like we can with combat experience.</blockquote>My apologies, Pre-Coffee here...

[swedago]

<p>If people wish to breeze through levels that is on them...  They pay to play this game.  If SoE decided this is a move to make?  Guess it is their game =P</p><p>I would just like an option for those people (I have a whole guild of "those people&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> that wish to slow their XP <i><b>not</b></i> increase it.</p><p>Gamestyle depends on the player.  However, options for those that differ would be better than to just force-feed a playstyle on all.</p>

[Azekah1]

Yea, taking away choices from players is not a good way to keep them happy and paying...

[PurpleWarri]

<p>Being away in LotRO and Warhammer Online taught me a useful lesson - I like fast levelling! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /> When you find your starting to frown at the XP bar at L20 in a game with 40 levels, you know there's a problem <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/0320a00cb4bb5629ab9fc2bc1fcc4e9e.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Re-subbed here today and looking forward to getting back to SS for some fun.</p><p>I'd have no objection to them enabling people to level slower if they so desired though - horses for courses and all that.</p>

[DCarnage2]

What they should do is make a buff or debuff... that reduces XP gain by a certain % or make it so a player can set the percentage of XP earned both off of kills and quests.

[Ammadessi]

I'm new to the game, but personally I'd like a choice to choose how much xp I'm getting. A difficulty slider, or box to click, perhaps. I personally don't mind chugging along at the lower levels, so I'd like an option to turn down xp substantionally, instead of just turning off combat xp (which I've already done).

[swedago]

<cite>Ammadessi wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm new to the game, but personally I'd like a choice to choose how much xp I'm getting. A difficulty slider, or box to click, perhaps. I personally don't mind chugging along at the lower levels, so I'd like an option to turn down xp substantionally, instead of just turning off combat xp (which I've already done). </blockquote>Personally I have 5 level 80s already..  The last thing I want is to level fast to 80 again.  I enjoy the mid level content and would like to stay there a while and do all the quests I missed before.

[Trellium]

I agree with the OP. Why is it an issue to have the option to slow the experience rate down if that is the way you want to play?We always have combat off, on our mains as well as our alts, yet we ding far too fast. All we want is the ability to play at our own rate. If someone else wants to see levels race by, I could care less if they get a giant sqeaky hammer of death that whacks a mob and grants a level. It makes no difference to me, as long as I can play with slow level gains.I would level lock each level until I did <b>ALL </b>of the quests. I would turn down this new experience bonus, as well as vitality. Even better, I would also like to sell vitality on the brokers. :p

[Zarador]

What would work nicely here is the slider that we had in Everquest Live.  You could adjust what percentage of combat experience you wanted applied to AA experience.  This way you could be ensured that doing quests and collections and such wont result in a combat experience gain. Honestly, they could work it out fairly, something to the effect of how end game level 80 Combat Experience is applied now.  "X" amount of "Combat Points" gets applied to the requirement to reach "X" amount of AA points. Sure, there would be a point of diminishing returns just like there are now if you do the grey quests for AA and you already have a good amount of AA points.  Some return, while eliminating unwanted experience is better than no return.As the AA Cap gets higher and higher and the abilities are more desired, people will no longer fully appreciate that fast leveling curve if it means mindless grinding of trivial content because you hit level cap far too fast.

[Full_Metal_Mage]

I don't think the new expience point requirements need to be changed. Again.<p>I suggest that players who are obsessed with doing everything with one character take a step back and look at the game as it is today. There are many more zones and many more adventuring options than we had when the game launched. Plus, a standard subscription includes three character slots more than were included when the game launched.</p><p>Rather than trying to complete every single quest in every single zone on just one character, choose a path for that character to follow and enjoy the journey as you go and don't fret about missing out on a few things with that one character along the way. Then, when you level up an alt, you can enjoy content you did not experience the first time through from the perspective of a new character. The game will feel fresher to you on an alt if you're not doing the same things you've already done half a dozen times.</p><p>Stop trying to control the game experience and just experience the game.</p>

[Zarador]

<cite>Full_Metal_Mage wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't think the new expience point requirements need to be changed. Again.<p>I suggest that players who are obsessed with doing everything with one character take a step back and look at the game as it is today. There are many more zones and many more adventuring options than we had when the game launched. Plus, a standard subscription includes three character slots more than were included when the game launched.</p><p>Rather than trying to complete every single quest in every single zone on just one character, choose a path for that character to follow and enjoy the journey as you go and don't fret about missing out on a few things with that one character along the way. Then, when you level up an alt, you can enjoy content you did not experience the first time through from the perspective of a new character. The game will feel fresher to you on an alt if you're not doing the same things you've already done half a dozen times.</p><p>Stop trying to control the game experience and just experience the game.</p></blockquote>While I respect your opinion, to a degree, some players do enjoy making an alternate and this time seeing the entire world, or as much of it as they can.  Like a box of chocolates I always go out there with the idea that this time...I'm going to control myself and "DING"! Ooops.. did it again <sighs>.Mentoring is defiantly fun, but not quite the same as experiencing the zone with friends while your at that level.  "God Mode" gets disruptive at times when you find yourself wiping out a zone that would have killed you easily were you the real level and not mentored down. The "obsession" often is the diversion, almost as in raiding for the best gears and masters. Some of the "obsessed" got our first character (or several characters) to 80 the fast way and now enjoy maxing out every aspect that we can on an alternate character.  For example, this time around I made a Warden that I capped the skills out in every level instead of spending hours catching up on harvesting and such.  I also started a trade as well as a secondary trade.  While adventuring, I have been attempting to do as many quests in as many places as I can while doing the Lore and Legends as close to the appropriate levels as possible.  I like to think of it as "refining" the character now instead of just getting to the end game cap in a race.  <chuckles> call it a Min/Max where I enjoy being the minimum age to experience the maximum content!

[Ilucide]

We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)

[soibit]

i think a slider like we used to have in eq live would work nicely however, i play on nagafen and i would like to have a little tweak to that idea as to not make AA easy to max out at level 10 (^__^).    take a slider like we used to have but only apply it to quest exp.  then we can still lock our exp for combet and maybe put like a max of 50% of all of our quest exp back into AA. i think this would solve a lot of the issues without giving people an easymode to gain AA.  just my 2 cp

[Full_Metal_Mage]

<cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Full_Metal_Mage wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't think the new expience point requirements need to be changed. Again.<p>I suggest that players who are obsessed with doing everything with one character take a step back and look at the game as it is today. There are many more zones and many more adventuring options than we had when the game launched. Plus, a standard subscription includes three character slots more than were included when the game launched.</p><p>Rather than trying to complete every single quest in every single zone on just one character, choose a path for that character to follow and enjoy the journey as you go and don't fret about missing out on a few things with that one character along the way. Then, when you level up an alt, you can enjoy content you did not experience the first time through from the perspective of a new character. The game will feel fresher to you on an alt if you're not doing the same things you've already done half a dozen times.</p><p>Stop trying to control the game experience and just experience the game.</p></blockquote>While I respect your opinion, to a degree, some players do enjoy making an alternate and this time seeing the entire world, or as much of it as they can.  Like a box of chocolates I always go out there with the idea that this time...I'm going to control myself and "DING"! Ooops.. did it again .Mentoring is defiantly fun, but not quite the same as experiencing the zone with friends while your at that level.  "God Mode" gets disruptive at times when you find yourself wiping out a zone that would have killed you easily were you the real level and not mentored down. The "obsession" often is the diversion, almost as in raiding for the best gears and masters. Some of the "obsessed" got our first character (or several characters) to 80 the fast way and now enjoy maxing out every aspect that we can on an alternate character.  For example, this time around I made a Warden that I capped the skills out in every level instead of spending hours catching up on harvesting and such.  I also started a trade as well as a secondary trade.  While adventuring, I have been attempting to do as many quests in as many places as I can while doing the Lore and Legends as close to the appropriate levels as possible.  I like to think of it as "refining" the character now instead of just getting to the end game cap in a race.  call it a Min/Max where I enjoy being the minimum age to experience the maximum content!</blockquote>I see it this way: instead of having to jump around to every zone in a tier just to get enough quests to level up, lowering the experience point requirement should enable players to pick a contiguous path for character advancement and enjoy the game in a manner more consistant with a story telling perspective.Playing a Qeynos based character could for example, now mean playing in Antonica, Thundering Steppes, Zek, Everfrost, Sinking Sands, Pillars of Flames,  Kingdom of Sky and then into RoK and completely skip Commonlands, Nektulos Forest (gah! I hate that place), Enchanted Lands, Lavastorm, or any of the EoF zones. You could play all of those skipped zones on an evil character.I think that rather than simply speeding up power leveling (which some players will always do regardless) this change makes it easier to get a character immersed in the story of Norrath.

[Oh]

<cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote><p>You know while this is great and all, I must be really dense. I just don't see the problem, leveling is exactly the same as it was before, you have to do NOW the same things you had to do before. The only difference is it takes less xp to level then it did before. Can't say it's by a huge margin but it is enough to make a point. SOOO what is really different? All of the options the OP stated were what was there before the xp changes happened and still alternatives that could be done. If the point of these (not just this one sorry) threads are just for this new feature then I guess I get it to some degree but then the question i ask at the end will be very important for you.</p><p>Don't get me wrong I'm not dissing that this new feature is being added, I guess I am just not on the same page so to speak as others despertally trying to get this. </p><p>Also out of curiosity when you "turn off quest and exploration" xp does that also turn off Achievement XP? I know that will be an issue if it does or if it doesn't, i'm sure there are folks on both sides of that one.</p>

[Xand]

Ilucide wrote: <i>"We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)"</i>Good to hear that that feature will be implemented, thank you for the info Ilucide <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Could i bribe you into releasing it sooner as an hotfix maybe ? *shoves a mountain of muffins and hot chocolate in the direction of the DEVs*<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />For some of us (me included) it is a huge issue, worse than linkdeads every 30 mins.<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Would a modivication for the ability to turn off quest & exploration xp be possible (for the future - no need to waste time on it now - for folks like me the "turn off" switch is needed right away - well... i moe like wanted yesterday but that's another story *g*<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><b>let's say, 3 settings "GU49 xp" "Q&E xp off" "Q&E xp as it was bevore (%-wise), modified to the new xp requirements per level" ? </b>That way we hat full freedom in our stiles of play.-fast levler-slow levler-adventure xp off but small %of adventure xp for every quest done I agree this may be not important to some. Seen as useless by some, since you can turn xp off and on as you like (when the Q&E xp fix wents live).But for some (raides hand) it would restore the old leveling feeling (adventure xp off, slow adventure xp from Q&E) that they come to love over the years <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[dawy]

<cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote>Thanks Illucide perhaps your words will finally put these sort of threads to bed.I love the xp changes myself,i've been here since what..LU 4 and seen a lot of changes to the game some bad but on the whole mostly good and i have to say LU 49 is one of the best LU's i've seen in the game

[Outkasted2006]

<cite>Daedalus Raistlin wrote:</cite><blockquote>I second this. As you can see from my sig, I like to take my time.I know of a guildie who disables combat XP, and would probably want to disable quest XP as well. He takes it slowly and does as much content as he can find, and I bet this increase will annoy him a lot.I haven't played on live yet to see how the XP effects me, but I think I would like an option to disable quest XP too so I don't outlevel everything.</blockquote>Love the solution. You guys will still lock. But dont give me this crap. People lvl lock to HOARD AA, run around with there buddies, and be low lvl locking nublets. Yeah that's skill and knowing how to play your case. Max AA (whatever lvl cap your at the time),Have your mount that gives you bonuses you shouldnt have at this lvl, all your masters since your locked and have forever to get them, and then best yet, always running in packs... All that, then brag about your UBER kill streaks. Love killing those kind of people as I am lvling up toons. Me and my very little AA, not locked self. Funny stuff, getting killed by someone who maybe doesnt have as good of a title, or AA, or equipment or mastery of all his spells.  Please just take away, lvls, mobs, quests, and just make it so we all are basically 80 or whatever lvl, and we can alll just pvp. Everyone gets the spells, there are no spell upgrades. And then lets have some real pvp.

[Xand]

"Some" of us don't play on pvp <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> and nope i do not "hoard aa" but i find it more enjoyable doing quests in a zone where the mobs have another color than grey<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />the increased xp gain doesn't bother me - as long as it is not forced on me and makes the play style i enjoy impossible.I don't throw harsh words in the direction of players who prefer level gain above everything else (or just want to level faster than what used to be). All fine for me - but i want to be able to enjoy the game my way, without being accused of "hoarding" "running around in packs" and show of with the number of AAs i have. I just don't like running blindfolded through the game world and seeing leveling up as my only goal. For some of us simple playing is the goal of the game. not reaching lvl 80. Of course this is my opionion - and if someone has one 180° to mine ? I let them <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Some people like the faster xp - let them! (and grats to you<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )Some hate it - let them switch it off and they are happy again. Nobody is forced another playstile, as it should be.Whatever my personal preferences in game - I would never imply that other play styles than mine are wrong, or generally less desirable than mine. Or the other players are "generic insult" because they don't share my view. Let's be nice to each other, don't bash each other because some like hot chokolate more than coffe<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Thunderthyze]

<p>Personally I would prefer shades of grey rather than black or white so if anyone at SOE is taking notice of preferences put me in the box marked "XP slider" rather than the one marked "XP on/off button". Level locking is an entirely different mindset from wanting to enjoy progression at a sensible rate. And don't forget, there are as many definitions of a "sensible rate" as there are subscribers hence my preference for a slider....if possible.</p>

[Xand]

Another question : is there an aprox. date when GU50 will go live?  Bevore the Expansion or with the expansion ?<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I just hope it won't take a month till the xp switch/slider makes it into the game <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Zorastiz]

<p>People, change is a constant, just as in RL things change in our online worlds, dwelling on it doesn't help and for some can become obsessive.</p><p>Breathe deep, give it a chance play awhile with it and see how it goes.</p>

[Faenril]

<cite>Full_Metal_Mage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>I see it this way: instead of having to jump around to every zone in a tier just to get enough quests to level up, lowering the experience point requirement should enable players to pick a contiguous path for character advancement and enjoy the game in a manner more consistant with a story telling perspective.Playing a Qeynos based character could for example, now mean playing in Antonica, Thundering Steppes, Zek, Everfrost, Sinking Sands, Pillars of Flames,  Kingdom of Sky and then into RoK and completely skip Commonlands, Nektulos Forest (gah! I hate that place), Enchanted Lands, Lavastorm, or any of the EoF zones. You could play all of those skipped zones on an evil character.I think that rather than simply speeding up power leveling (which some players will always do regardless) this change makes it easier to get a character immersed in the story of Norrath.</blockquote>That would make sense if there was a main storyline in EQ2 sending you through the zones sequentially.But it's not the case, there is no "main quest" sending you from antonica at level 10 up to Jarsath Wastes at level 80 for instance.Personnally I see that as an advantage as you are free to experience the zones you like in whatever order you like.The point is while some ppl are alt - oholics and like switching toons regularly, some other ppl would rather focus exclusively on one toon, maxx it out and do as much content as they can on that toon.There is no "right" or "wrong" playstyle, and thankfully EQ2 can support both playstyle (and has managed it quite fine IMO so far).Regardless of you favored style, there is no reason one play style should now get screwed.If some ppl want to do TS, Nek, BBM on the same toon before quests get gray, it's their problem, it does not impact the power levelers gaming experience by the slightest bit.

[Brook]

<cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. <b>We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</b></blockquote><p>Yet you continue to do so.</p><p>With all due respect I know its an impossible job to please everyone and I know you do work hard to try and please as many as you can, but...by adding this without a way to opt out you <u>have</u> taken away from many peoples style of play just with this one little change.</p><p>Its about the same thing you have done with the resting stance on the females.. WHY? Was something broken with the way they stood before? That's a lot of wasted time changing something there was nothing wrong with. I don't pretend to know what you have to go through to change things, but I do know that the time spent changing something as ridiculous as that stance probably would have been better spent adding a slider or exp off box instead.</p><p>Could it be just hot-fixed in please instead of waiting a month?</p>

[swedago]

<cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote><p>I know many of us appreciate this. I do not want anyone esle's right to zoom to 80.  I just wanted to play the game the way I prefer..  I am the one paying for it =)</p><p>Someone seemed rather annoyed about level lockers...  Sounds like PvP to me. The solution I suggested was not for PvP, but even if it were...  You can lock too.  A 30th level toon with 60 AA in PvP will die to a 40th with 1 AA.  Mit/Resist/Attack is determined more by level difference than by AAs.  If you are getting griefed by someone who killed their toon 100000x by the guards so they would slow their XP & just get AA...  What can I tell you?  Perhaps PvP is not for you? I played on Nagafen since launch..  I was one of the 1st players to 70th when it was cap.  After a while I realized that I enjoyed PvE better.  No need to give yourself a heart attack in a game.  Play to have fun..  Not stress =)</p><p>A lot of you in this thread have many opinions, and that is your right.  However, I do not agree with one person's demand to change things for their own enjoyment.  I prefer options as to how you wish to play.  I look forward to GU50.  Thanks Ilucide</p>

[Howlingmoon]

<cite>Moha@Innovation wrote:</cite><blockquote>Another question : is there an aprox. date when GU50 will go live?  Bevore the Expansion or with the expansion ?<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  I just hope it won't take a month till the xp switch/slider makes it into the game <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></blockquote>GU50 = Expansion release. Expansion release = November 18th.

[Zarador]

<cite>Full_Metal_Mage wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Full_Metal_Mage wrote:</cite><blockquote>I don't think the new expience point requirements need to be changed. Again.<p>I suggest that players who are obsessed with doing everything with one character take a step back and look at the game as it is today. There are many more zones and many more adventuring options than we had when the game launched. Plus, a standard subscription includes three character slots more than were included when the game launched.</p><p>Rather than trying to complete every single quest in every single zone on just one character, choose a path for that character to follow and enjoy the journey as you go and don't fret about missing out on a few things with that one character along the way. Then, when you level up an alt, you can enjoy content you did not experience the first time through from the perspective of a new character. The game will feel fresher to you on an alt if you're not doing the same things you've already done half a dozen times.</p><p>Stop trying to control the game experience and just experience the game.</p></blockquote>While I respect your opinion, to a degree, some players do enjoy making an alternate and this time seeing the entire world, or as much of it as they can.  Like a box of chocolates I always go out there with the idea that this time...I'm going to control myself and "DING"! Ooops.. did it again .Mentoring is defiantly fun, but not quite the same as experiencing the zone with friends while your at that level.  "God Mode" gets disruptive at times when you find yourself wiping out a zone that would have killed you easily were you the real level and not mentored down. The "obsession" often is the diversion, almost as in raiding for the best gears and masters. Some of the "obsessed" got our first character (or several characters) to 80 the fast way and now enjoy maxing out every aspect that we can on an alternate character.  For example, this time around I made a Warden that I capped the skills out in every level instead of spending hours catching up on harvesting and such.  I also started a trade as well as a secondary trade.  While adventuring, I have been attempting to do as many quests in as many places as I can while doing the Lore and Legends as close to the appropriate levels as possible.  I like to think of it as "refining" the character now instead of just getting to the end game cap in a race.  call it a Min/Max where I enjoy being the minimum age to experience the maximum content!</blockquote>I see it this way: instead of having to jump around to every zone in a tier just to get enough quests to level up, lowering the experience point requirement should enable players to pick a contiguous path for character advancement and enjoy the game in a manner more consistant with a story telling perspective.Playing a Qeynos based character could for example, now mean playing in Antonica, Thundering Steppes, Zek, Everfrost, Sinking Sands, Pillars of Flames,  Kingdom of Sky and then into RoK and completely skip Commonlands, Nektulos Forest (gah! I hate that place), Enchanted Lands, Lavastorm, or any of the EoF zones. You could play all of those skipped zones on an evil character.I think that rather than simply speeding up power leveling (which some players will always do regardless) this change makes it easier to get a character immersed in the story of Norrath.</blockquote>Not sure what game you were playing, but in the game that I play you could easily do what you mention and still level out of a single path of content quite easily.  That was well before these changes.  Wailing caves, 4 levels in about 45 minutes (grouped).  From level 11-16 in a flash.  That's without even hitting the bloodskull quests or some other quest lines in The Commonlands.So I will be what, about level 20 when I hit Fallen Gate?  Then after that hit Nek Forest where I will start out with trivial content?  Consistent Story Line supported by accelerated leveling?  What if your story line is, oh I dunno, say your an adventurer out to see the world?  I think these changes simply make it easier to rush through the game (which is fine if that's what the person enjoys); but there also needs to be a chance to slow it down, which the developers say they will address in the future. Also, if you did all the quest lines in the Good or Evil Zones, no way could you hit even 1/2 the content of a single tier without having it go trivial on you.

[Bloodfa]

Thank you.  This will go a long way towards allowing exactly the sort of playstyle control over their characters that people have been clamoring for. 

[Thunndar316]

<p>Just because a quest is grey doesn't mean you can't do it.</p><p>There is that thing called mentoring you know. </p>

[Full_Metal_Mage]

<cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Not sure what game you were playing, but in the game that I play you could easily do what you mention and still level out of a single path of content quite easily.  That was well before these changes.  Wailing caves, 4 levels in about 45 minutes (grouped).  From level 11-16 in a flash.  That's without even hitting the bloodskull quests or some other quest lines in The Commonlands.So I will be what, about level 20 when I hit Fallen Gate?  Then after that hit Nek Forest where I will start out with trivial content?  Consistent Story Line supported by accelerated leveling?  What if your story line is, oh I dunno, say your an adventurer out to see the world?  I think these changes simply make it easier to rush through the game (which is fine if that's what the person enjoys); but there also needs to be a chance to slow it down, which the developers say they will address in the future. Also, if you did all the quest lines in the Good or Evil Zones, no way could you hit even 1/2 the content of a single tier without having it go trivial on you. </blockquote>Been playing EQ2, where in each zone there are lots of quests to play, except there has always been that barrier you hit after you've finished off the easily soloable quests that are available early in the zone, but they haven't leveled you up enough to take on the harder quests later in the zone so you have to run off to other zones and play their early level quests that you can complete to gain the levels you need to play the other quests in the zone you were originally playing all because groups don't care to play quests but want to grind, grind, grind to maximize their EPS (experience per second) and the design of the quest chains did not account for the EPS obsession of groups.(Run-on sentence intended. Please read as quickly as possible for full effect.)If the logs captured experience point gains players would be parsing that and pick-up groups would be all about EPS. Oh, wait, they already are, and quests slow down EPS because you have to turn in your quests to get their rewards. Smoothing out quest play is a good thing.Trivialized content? I enjoy gray quests as much as green, blue, white, and yellow.

[sliderhouserules]

Put me down with those wanting fine grained control over my exp. I'd love to see separate options for every kind of exp and bonus exp my character can gain.

[Deadz]

I have lost desire to play w/ this update.  A fast, medium , slow, and none xp slider would be like the greatest thing on the face of the plannet.  Right now (i've tried it) xp is WAY TO FAST, in my opinion.  if my guild wasnt' the coolest thing since sliced bread, maybe i'd quit.  I'll stand in the guild hall (which i love) and chat w/ my guildies and keep paying, but i wanna enjoy norath....God i can't spell and i'm tired.But please.. please.. oh pretty please eqII devs do something..I joined in june with the free time... rerolled in late august..was having the mmo time of my life then GU49 pulled the rug out from under my feet!

[Isoloki]

<cite>Thunndar316 wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Just because a quest is grey doesn't mean you can't do it.</p><p>There is that thing called mentoring you know. </p></blockquote>Always love it when someone answers like this. I just don't think they really read the threads and the meanings behind them.So let me explain;Some of us enjoy playing the content at the appropriate level. for example, if the quest is for level 45 we would like to do that quest while we are in our 40's. This way we can actually have a little challenge to our combat. Although most content is weak (Dumbed down) it can still be a challenge.When you mentor, you are so over powered for that tier that there is no challenge. I mentor often to help guild mates and friends do difficult content when they cannot find a group. And what would have been tough for a group of 3-4 players is very easy with a level 79 mentoring down to level 40. And for me this is boring. Both as the person mentoring and being mentored. Same for doing grey quests. I will go and do a couple of grey quests if it is a Heritage Quest that I have out leveled because of helping others. But will not go back just to do the normal content. There is no challenge.So by allowing us to lower our xp from quests and mobs, we will be able to enjoy that challenge for a longer period of time in the zones we enjoy.That is what everyone here is been asking for, a way for some to play the game slowly.

[Jrral]

I have to agree with others. As I feared when this was discussed pre-update, levelling's far outstripped the ability of the character to keep pace. I think it's because the XP gains multiplied instead of adding. The level-80-per-account multiplied the effect of the base XP gains. The mentoring bonuses multiplied the base XP gains <i>and</i> the level-80-per-account bonus (the people mentoring down have increased base XP and level 80 characters on their accounts too). One of my friend's assassin characters is running through Bloodlines, and we're helping. It's taken us 3 nights, about 2-3 hours a night, to run through 9 of the 11 quests in the series. She started at level 30. She dinged level 40 last night, and the only reason she's only 40 is she shut off combat XP early in the second night (when she dinged 3<img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Without turning off XP, she'd easily have been 43-44 by now. That's insanely fast. By comparison, before the changes even with all the mentoring happening she'd only have been gaining about 2 levels a night, only around level 36 or so if she left XP turned on the whole time. She's using her skills and fighting every chance she gets, and she's still gaining her next level and 5 more points of skill needed faster than she can get skill-ups. It's a vicious circle: every level she gains the mobs con lower and the fights get shorter, meaning it takes more fights per level to get her skill capped, but the rate she's dinging levels at doesn't slow down appreciably. She falls behind faster and faster, but having invested the time to get half-way through Bloodlines nobody wants to abandon it and move on to higher-level content until we've gotten to the rewards at the end (vampire master strike comes in handy in some zones).It's not just skills either. A complete tier in 2 nights means new armor and weapons and jewelry. But it's also less than half of the Bloodlines series. Where's the money going to come from? You don't get enough coin and loot in that time to finance the equipment upgrades. Even if you broker absolutely everything, squeeze every penny out of what you get, it's still simply not enough loot drops and quest rewards and opportunities to get things that can earn you coin to cover the costs involved (roughly speaking, 9 ebon, 8 rhodium, 3 figwart roots and 1 severed cedar for a complete mastercrafted equipment upgrade for an assassin). That's a couple of plat right there, not counting spell/CA rares. That's OK if you've got multiple level 80s who can earn coin to finance upgrades for lower-level alts, but there's no way a newly-dinged level 42 character who was 32 just 2-3 days and not even 1 quest series earlier can come anywhere near funding their own gear.I know, just turn off XP. Which is exactly the point: if you <i>have</i> to disable XP for extended periods of time just to let your character catch up to the point the game wants them to be at for their level, XP gain has gotten way way too high for the game's design. My impression's that the whole XP gain boost has been driven by requests from just one group who want to level alts to 80 as quickly as possible without regard to content. One of EQ2's main strengths has always been the content, though, so is pushing players to skip content really a good thing?My suggestion: dial back the base XP increase, or roll it back entirely. Leave the level-80-per-account bonus in place, in combination with mentoring it's plenty big enough to turbo-charge any power-leveling of alts, but put in an option to let players disable it so we can select between turbocharged and normal XP. And when someone dings their first level 80, pop up a dialog explaining the effect on XP so they know what they have to adjust to fit their desired play-style.

[Kiara]

<cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote>

[Deadz]

<cite>Kiara wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote></blockquote>This is not a solution at all, you DID take away people's style of play, and say you'll give it back in a month.  THis was an extremely poor decision in the minds of ALOT of eq2 players.

[Deadz]

These threads keep popping up because of the amount of unhappy people.. not because they don't see the answer from the dev team...

[Kendricke]

<cite>Deadz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kiara wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote></blockquote>This is not a solution at all, you DID take away people's style of play, and say you'll give it back in a month.  THis was an extremely poor decision in the minds of ALOT of eq2 players.</blockquote><p>So, is that solution not what you want?  Should they NOT put that change in with Update 50 because it's "not a solution at all"?  What is the solution you want because I see a whole lot of bluster and complaining here, but not a lot of "here's the solution I want".  </p><p>Whatever decision was made, it was made.  It may not be a decision you agree with, but it's not as if the majority of the playerbase is up in arms and running for the cancellation button over it, either, so apparently at least one or two players thought the decision wasn't the worst judgement call in the history of gaming.  Even then, after that choice was made, they still put together a fix for the problem that some players have mentioned here on the forums, and they rushed to put that fix in with the next game update.  However, according to you here, that's "not a solution at all".  How is it not a solution, because as near as I can tell by sifting through the various rants here, that's exactly the solution the players are asking for.  </p><p>Is your only real problem here that the solution isn't coming fast enough for you personally?</p>

[Deadz]

<p>It's not a solution at all, because alot of us would like to be able to gain xp at a reasonable rate...</p><p>None or too much is not a solution at all.. i have no problem with people gaining xp lightning fast.. i've talked to people and it's not like i'm alone with this feeling.  A solution would be allowing those who want to lvl lightnight fast to have a way to do that, and the people who would like to lvl at a reason able rate do so as well.  I understand u feel the need to defend your game, but understand i'm lashing out because my game just broke my heart <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ...    I was having the mmo time of my life until this change.. and i have hit my cancel button.. but i still as well have the expansion on preorder. I also send a letter politely expressing my dislike for the change, solutions for the change, and got a letter back that said "this has been addressed"  so felt my comments were warrented in reply to Kiara..</p><p>It is my right to express my displeasure and to do whatever i can to get soe to look into what I feel is a poor decision, because i would love nothing more then to continue paying my subscription and keep enjoying this terrific world at the rate i was, instead of being forced into an all or nothing senerio this change has put me into.  So i stand by my statement, that this is not a solution at all.</p>

[Trellium]

Well, maybe our family will head off and play Warhammer for a while, until SOE gets this mess fixed up. They say they don't want to remove anyone's style of play, and then they take away a level and a half of my characters play time. I was hoping to still get my Runney Eye quests completed before they went grey, but because of the experience tossed at me the entire zone is grey.The solution is already too little, and too late. They need to give us roll backs so we return to the lower levels over and above the options to turn off experience.Here, look what our programmers can do ... we can remove levels and levels of play time from all of your characters! Wow, what a deal. I pay to play, not to have programming changes that push me past content.It was a bad move to force experience changes on the players without having the code completed so that it wouldn't impact our characters if we didn't want it.

[PurpleWarri]

<cite>Trellium wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, maybe our family will head off and play Warhammer for a while, until SOE gets this mess fixed up. </blockquote><p>They are speeding up the levelling in WARhammer because the MMO world is finally moving on and the slow EQ-model of advancement is no longer that welcome I guess. The majority of players don't want to level slow and enjoy the ride, they want to get to the endgame RvR/PvP/Raiding as soon as possible.</p><p>I'm not criticising those who like it slower, I applaud their patience and dedication, but things are changing.</p><p>Vanguard came out trying to be the 'hard MMO' for those who like to feel they achieved each level and it hasn't exactly been oversubscribed, has it? Warhammer cut back on XP gains at the end of beta to slow players down and now they're having to seriously increase gains before the first 'free' 30 days are over.</p><p>I've played MMOs since 1999 and the ones I look back on fondly were the ones without any 'levels' so I didn't have to grind to fight things with my friends (UO and the original SWG, and EvE Online of course). So, yes, put me down as one of the impatient guys now because after levelling in EQ, AC, AO, DAoC, SWG (post NGE), WoW, and EQ2, just to name a few off the top of my head, I'm pretty fed up with how long it takes to get to the higher level stuff where the majority will congregate. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Give me fast levelling or give me a different game, shall now be my battle cry! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[Trellium]

<cite>Tamlin@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Trellium wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, maybe our family will head off and play Warhammer for a while, until SOE gets this mess fixed up. </blockquote><p>They are speeding up the levelling in WARhammer because the MMO world is finally moving on and the slow EQ-model of advancement is no longer that welcome I guess. The majority of players don't want to level slow and enjoy the ride, they want to get to the endgame RvR/PvP/Raiding as soon as possible.</p><p>I'm not criticising those who like it slower, I applaud their patience and dedication, but things are changing.</p><p>Vanguard came out trying to be the 'hard MMO' for those who like to feel they achieved each level and it hasn't exactly been oversubscribed, has it? Warhammer cut back on XP gains at the end of beta to slow players down and now they're having to seriously increase gains before the first 'free' 30 days are over.</p><p>I've played MMOs since 1999 and the ones I look back on fondly were the ones without any 'levels' so I didn't have to grind to fight things with my friends (UO and the original SWG, and EvE Online of course). So, yes, put me down as one of the impatient guys now because after levelling in EQ, AC, AO, DAoC, SWG (post NGE), WoW, and EQ2, just to name a few off the top of my head, I'm pretty fed up with how long it takes to get to the higher level stuff where the majority will congregate. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Give me fast levelling or give me a different game, shall now be my battle cry! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote>That is fine, I could care less if you get a level for each step you take as you walk about town. It's not important to me in the slightest. But, it is important to me that I get to play the game and the quests in the game before they go trivial, and quests become trivial before even a small percentage are completed.They need to let people slow down the experience. It's dead easy, the solution isn't complex and it's already partially implemented (but it still gives too much experience even if turned off). They are now making it so whole levels are skipped, and this has got to stop.

[Amytheyst]

<cite>Deadz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>It's not a solution at all, because alot of us would like to be able to gain xp at a reasonable rate...</p><p>None or too much is not a solution at all.. i have no problem with people gaining xp lightning fast.. i've talked to people and it's not like i'm alone with this feeling.  A solution would be allowing those who want to lvl lightnight fast to have a way to do that, and the people who would like to lvl at a reason able rate do so as well.  I understand u feel the need to defend your game, but understand i'm lashing out because my game just broke my heart <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ...    I was having the mmo time of my life until this change.. and i have hit my cancel button.. but i still as well have the expansion on preorder. I also send a letter politely expressing my dislike for the change, solutions for the change, and got a letter back that said "this has been addressed"  so felt my comments were warrented in reply to Kiara..</p><p>It is my right to express my displeasure and to do whatever i can to get soe to look into what I feel is a poor decision, because i would love nothing more then to continue paying my subscription and keep enjoying this terrific world at the rate i was, instead of being forced into an all or nothing senerio this change has put me into.  So i stand by my statement, that this is not a solution at all.</p></blockquote>Express to your hearts content. By the time you get finished winding it up on the forums the next GU will roll out. Its the way of SOE. I pulled the plug on multiple accounts 2 years ago and brought them all back recently. Sad to hear youre willing to go to the extremes over it, but alas, the game will still be here even 2 years later.You might as well enjoy what you can because they wont lose sleep over it.Our family is having the time of its life with the game before and after the update, leveling speed and content has never been an issue though, we know our ways around seeing the content we want. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Good luck.

[Deadz]

<p>Thank you.  maybe it's just me and i'm  over reacting, maybe a good few weeks of some 360 hockey will fix me up good so i can get back into the game.  just so sad..  Then again, i've lived my life resisting change, why should i stop now!!! haha</p>

[Lonestryd]

<cite>Tamlin@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Trellium wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, maybe our family will head off and play Warhammer for a while, until SOE gets this mess fixed up. </blockquote><p>They are speeding up the levelling in WARhammer because the MMO world is finally moving on and the slow EQ-model of advancement is no longer that welcome I guess. The majority of players don't want to level slow and enjoy the ride, they want to get to the endgame RvR/PvP/Raiding as soon as possible.</p><p>I'm not criticising those who like it slower, I applaud their patience and dedication, but things are changing.</p><p>Vanguard came out trying to be the 'hard MMO' for those who like to feel they achieved each level and it hasn't exactly been oversubscribed, has it? Warhammer cut back on XP gains at the end of beta to slow players down and now they're having to seriously increase gains before the first 'free' 30 days are over.</p><p>I've played MMOs since 1999 and the ones I look back on fondly were the ones without any 'levels' so I didn't have to grind to fight things with my friends (UO and the original SWG, and EvE Online of course). So, yes, put me down as one of the impatient guys now because after levelling in EQ, AC, AO, DAoC, SWG (post NGE), WoW, and EQ2, just to name a few off the top of my head, I'm pretty fed up with how long it takes to get to the higher level stuff where the majority will congregate. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Give me fast levelling or give me a different game, shall now be my battle cry! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote>You speak about that which you know not. Vanguard's XP gain was increased several times during beta and more afterward. It is as easy to level in Vanguard as any other MMO on the market. And because even much of the group content can be soloed, one could argue the game is "easier" than EQ2. Neither EQ2 nor Vanguard has any more soul left in the game itself. It is all about setting the community up for micro transactions.

[Kendricke]

<cite>Lonestryder@Guk wrote:</cite><blockquote> Neither EQ2 nor Vanguard has any more soul left in the game itself. It is all about setting the community up for micro transactions. </blockquote><p>And yet, we're all still here, basically <a href="http://clockworkgamer.com/2008/03/26/blaming-the-milkman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blaming the milkman</a> all the while.  </p><p>The game has not changed, folks.  The only real change - the ONLY change - is that the experience curves and totals have been adjusted.  You want to talk about gameplay changing, we can discuss Update 13 (class/combat revamp), or Update 24 (tradeskill revamp), or Achievements, or Kingdom of Sky (social hate), or Echoes of Faydwer's release (mitigation/diminishing returns revamp), or Kunark (ranged AI, harder NPC's, switch to solo questing as primary means of experience).  This change for Update 49 is relatively minor compared to any of the previously mentioned changes, and I could name a dozen more changes that affected actual gameplay similarly in-depth.  </p><p>Your combat has not changed because the experience has.  The only real complaint I keep hearing is that people want to complete out the quests "before they grey out".  In my opinion, the only real solution is that SOE stop introducing new quests.  After all, there are more quests per level now than there were at release.  It's apparent that all these new quests are making it harder to level before quests begin to "grey out".  I mean, if SOE keeps introducing new content all the time, how are players supposed to be able to complete the "pure" game as it was "intended" - I mean, it's obvious the game has no soul anymore now that we can grey out quests before levelling, right?</p>

[JenarieII]

I'm happy it will be changed to give an option.When I started playing not long after release, leveling was HARD.  I was perfectly happy with it but got dragged back to EQ1 to raid.I came back and started over after EoF and leveling seemed about right to me.  I turned off xp and was able to do all the low level quests in G'Fay then do both Thundering Steppes and Nek Forest and butcherblock and could keep doing all three almost fully before grey as long as I kept combat xp off.  It seemed perfect to me.My latest alt (who got to 70 before the latest changes) started in Qeynos and was only able to do Fadwyr and Qeynos quests and even with XP off didn't get to finish all those before they were grey.  I finally gave up on xp off since it wasn't working and just turned it on and leveled figuring at least then I'd have another 80 to run instances when my main was locked.I'd have been happier being able to lock quest xp even before the change and with the latest xp boost I wasn't really seeing any reson to start any more alts since I'd just end up 80 again where I already was without having time to do anything new or interesting.The coming change will fix alts for me.  The change made to make leveling easier will make more people happy then the change that is coming but with more options it should make even more people happy.  Options are fantastic.  Thank you for your decision to give us back and odd but definately still wanted play style. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Full_Metal_Mage]

I like the change. It's as though a dev on the night shift was walking by a seldom used console somewhere in the back of an infrequently visited coldroom and saw a slowly blinking light labeld 'FUN' and thought to himself, 'Hey, I wonder what that does', looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then pused the button.

[Kordran]

<p>Another perspective on this is that by reducing the leveling curve at the lower tiers, they're actually <b><i>increasing</i></b> replayability for the majority of people. Players are being encouraged to take different paths through the content with alternate characters, not simply try to do everything there is to do on their main character. The only negative impact this really has is on the "completist" types with borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder that feel that they must absolutely do everything, everytime all the time, no exceptions. If there's a quest, they feel they <b><i>must</i></b> complete it before it greys out, or they have "failed" to experience the content fully.</p><p>I guess SOE could provide a slider which allowed you to select how much XP gain you have, from 0% to 100% and let each player adjust accordingly to their personal tastes. So if you want some sense of progression, but really want to slow down, you could set the slider to 25%. If you want to catch up to a friend, you set it up to 100%, and so on. Choices are always good in my book, but I suppose it would depend on how much time it would take for them to implement something like this (and if they did add it, I'm pretty sure that it would be for the PvE servers only).</p>

[CrazyMoogle]

<cite>Tamlin@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Trellium wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, maybe our family will head off and play Warhammer for a while, until SOE gets this mess fixed up. </blockquote><p>They are speeding up the levelling in WARhammer because the MMO world is finally moving on and the slow EQ-model of advancement is no longer that welcome I guess. The majority of players don't want to level slow and enjoy the ride, they want to get to the endgame RvR/PvP/Raiding as soon as possible.</p><p>I'm not criticising those who like it slower, I applaud their patience and dedication, but things are changing.</p><p>Vanguard came out trying to be the 'hard MMO' for those who like to feel they achieved each level and it hasn't exactly been oversubscribed, has it? Warhammer cut back on XP gains at the end of beta to slow players down and now they're having to seriously increase gains before the first 'free' 30 days are over.</p><p>I've played MMOs since 1999 and the ones I look back on fondly were the ones without any 'levels' so I didn't have to grind to fight things with my friends (UO and the original SWG, and EvE Online of course). So, yes, put me down as one of the impatient guys now because after levelling in EQ, AC, AO, DAoC, SWG (post NGE), WoW, and EQ2, just to name a few off the top of my head, I'm pretty fed up with how long it takes to get to the higher level stuff where the majority will congregate. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Give me fast levelling or give me a different game, shall now be my battle cry! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote>Great post.But the On/Off switch is coming.  People can wait a measely few weeks for it.  Some of us waited a lot longer than that to get the experience improved to where it is today.Hopefully some day a slider will be put in so that those of us who want to level at a reasonable rate can set it high and those who want to spend inordinate amounts of time at a low level can turn it down.

[wellehad0]

<cite>Kiara wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote></blockquote><p>odd thing for a developer to say since they did just that on the PVP servers and even some how forgot to do the math and now pvp kills give even more exp then before and that swith them tweaking it yes you might have made the pvp   exp some what lower then before but now with less exp needed per lvl all it did was raise it...</p><p>the devs say they dont want to harm peopels way of playing but they have done just that with every single update of making this game from a fun challange to a easy solo game.. just look at what it has done to the population,.. if i where you devs i would stop spiting expanisions and huge game changing live updates and start working on eq3 right now your spending alot of money just to keep ticking of loyal people all in the name of trying to dumb the game down.. if you really want to go down the dumb downed game to fraw in more people try doing some advertising for once i cant even find this game in store shelfes anymore and i drove for hours the other day looking for a time card for this game</p>

[swedago]

<p><cite>Kiara wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote></blockquote><p>I really look forward to this update.  As a progressive raiding guild, most of our guildmates have not been really able to play their toons recently.  We had to make alts (who are already in their 50s even though xp has been turned off since their 30s... since this thread was made).</p><p>We do not mentor to make things green (easy mode), so you can understand our situation with our guild model, and these XP changes in GU49.</p><p>On the bright side, we are almost finished with tier5, so at least we will have a better solution for xp control for tier6 (GU50).</p>

[Thunderthyze]

<p><cite>Khayleigh@Najena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><cite>Tamlin@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>They are speeding up the levelling in WARhammer because the MMO world is finally moving on and the slow EQ-model of advancement is no longer that welcome I guess. The majority of players don't want to level slow and enjoy the ride, they want to get to the endgame RvR/PvP/Raiding as soon as possible.</p><p>I'm not criticising those who like it slower, I applaud their patience and dedication, but things are changing.</p><p>Vanguard came out trying to be the 'hard MMO' for those who like to feel they achieved each level and it hasn't exactly been oversubscribed, has it? Warhammer cut back on XP gains at the end of beta to slow players down and now they're having to seriously increase gains before the first 'free' 30 days are over.</p><p>I've played MMOs since 1999 and the ones I look back on fondly were the ones without any 'levels' so I didn't have to grind to fight things with my friends (UO and the original SWG, and EvE Online of course). So, yes, put me down as one of the impatient guys now because after levelling in EQ, AC, AO, DAoC, SWG (post NGE), WoW, and EQ2, just to name a few off the top of my head, I'm pretty fed up with how long it takes to get to the higher level stuff where the majority will congregate. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Give me fast levelling or give me a different game, shall now be my battle cry! <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote>Great post.But the On/Off switch is coming.  People can wait a measely few weeks for it.  Some of us waited a lot longer than that to get the experience improved to where it is today.Hopefully some day a slider will be put in so that those of us who want to level at a reasonable rate can set it high and those who want to spend inordinate amounts of time at a low level can turn it down.</blockquote><p>I suppose that if SOE is prepared to offer some form of XP gain control then I should be grateful. However, what I object to is that people like you Khayleigh seem to presume that a reduction in patience and an ethos of "want it all NOW!" is in some way evolutionary superior to those of us who quite liked the game the way it was when it was released.</p><p>A few years ago if you just wanted to spend your money and beat the game over the wekend you just bought an offline game off the shelf and did just that. Those that wanted a bit more depth and "involvement" chose to play online games because they offered far more content, continuing development and a more complex approach in order to play with/against other real people as opposed to AI.</p><p>As time moved on games companies realised that in the long run it was cheaper to produce online games as they were not having to re-invent the wheel every time they wanted people to buy more product. Plus they could charge people forever for playing it. So through advertising and marketing they made online gaming "sexy" as opposed to "geeky" and attracted all those people who wanted it all now and weren't used to earning achievements.</p><p>I suppose those people complained loudly enough (via their credit cards) that SOE had to simplify the game to avoid having them all leave again. Those of us who were in on the genre at the beginning DO feel disenfranchised I admit, because the game is no longer what we signed up to. In addition we get criticised for wanting some of the old stuff back as if it was in some way a retrograde step dragging us back into the stone age. I find it quite depressing that the "modern majority (?)" sees complexity, slow development and a requirement to "earn your spurs" a bad thing, and worse, they see it as the obvious step forward to simplify things to the point of complete boredom. Where, I wonder, do those people see the genre in the next 5 years?</p>

[erin]

<p><cite>Deadz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><cite>Kiara wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote></blockquote>This is not a solution at all, you DID take away people's style of play, and say you'll give it back in a month.  THis was an extremely poor decision in the minds of ALOT of eq2 players.</blockquote><p>And Deadz says:  "<span >These threads keep popping up because of the amount of unhappy people.. not because they don't see the answer from the dev team..."</span></p><p>I disagree.  Not one time, EVER have I heard even one player say anything remotely resembling this thread in game.  The only time I've ever seen this complaint is on the boards.  Are you sure its "a lot" of players that agree with you?</p><p>I think its a very small minority of players that feel this way, but I have no more basis than you do for that claim.  I am glad they are offering you folks an option to slow down leveling, but I'm thrilled they've speeded it up for the rest of us.  When I want to experience a certain level content, I get a char to that level and experience it.  Or I do it grey, it doesn't ruin the enjoyment for me.</p><p>To each his/her own obviously and like I said, glad they are offering more options, but I get annoyed at the regular claims by everyone that whatever their current complaint is, its shared by "alot" of players.</p>

[Windowlicker]

<p>You can turn off combat XP, and you can disable the new bonus given for characters at level 80.  I fail to see the problem, and I'd rather they spend development time on class balance then mucking around further with ways to restrict progression in this game.</p>

[Zorastiz]

<p>Name another MMO  that would do this?</p><p>They made a change, some didn't like it, they voiced their concerns and the developers instead of working on new content, fixing broken classes created an option for those folks that were upset by the change they made previously.</p><p>Those that want to level slowly will be able to, those that want to speed up thier progression can, I don't see the problem with the DEVS trying to please everyone!!!</p><p>This is a dead horse, we should let it be!</p>

[CrazyMoogle]

<p><cite>Holymoly@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I suppose that if SOE is prepared to offer some form of XP gain control then I should be grateful. However, what I object to is that people like you Khayleigh seem to presume that a reduction in patience and an ethos of "want it all NOW!" is in some way evolutionary superior to those of us who quite liked the game the way it was when it was released.</p></blockquote><p>But you have no problem when those of us who prefer the play at the cap are referred to as "spoiled children", the "want it all NOW!" people, and "needing medication".</p><p>You get the respect you give.  If you want me to respect your desire to waste away years doing boring, meaningless, tedious grinding to gain worthless levels then show a little respect toward those who feel differently.</p>

[CrazyMoogle]

<p><cite>Holymoly@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>A few years ago if you just wanted to spend your money and beat the game over the wekend you just bought an offline game off the shelf and did just that.</p><p>{snip}</p><p>I suppose those people complained loudly enough (via their credit cards) that SOE had to simplify the game to avoid having them all leave again. Those of us who were in on the genre at the beginning DO feel disenfranchised I admit, because the game is no longer what we signed up to. In addition we get criticised for wanting some of the old stuff back as if it was in some way a retrograde step dragging us back into the stone age. I find it quite depressing that the "modern majority (?)" sees complexity, slow development and a requirement to "earn your spurs" a bad thing, and worse, they see it as the obvious step forward to simplify things to the point of complete boredom. Where, I wonder, do those people see the genre in the next 5 years?</p></blockquote><p>By the way, nice mischaracterizations (yet again).  First off, get it through your head that nothing you have ever done or ever could do in a game is a personal accomplishment.  It's a friggen game.  But beyond that, I've never asked for the game to be "easier".  All many of us have said is that grinding levels is boring and tedious and serves no purpose.  I have plenty of things to do to progress my character without ever dinging a single level.  To this day, even if this expansion were not about to be released, my character is still not done progressing with the content currently in the game.</p><p>Gaining levels is boring and serves no purpose.  The less of my time I have to waste doing it the better.  Since this game has character levels (unfortunately) the best thing I can do is get through the useless, boring leveling as fast as possible so I can get to the actually playing of the game and working on my character.</p><p>Get this through your head once, just one time...it ain't about "easy".  It's about not wasting time with meaningless, boring, and tedious junk and getting to the actual playing of the game.  And for lots of us the game doesn't start until 80.  We want to take on the biggest stuff and do the biggest stuff.  And the cap is where it's at.  Wanting to take on the biggest and baddest is pretty hard to spin as "wanting it easy".</p>

[swedago]

<p><cite>Zahne@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You can turn off combat XP, and you can disable the new bonus given for characters at level 80.  I fail to see the problem, and I'd rather they spend development time on class balance then mucking around further with ways to restrict progression in this game.</p></blockquote><p>You may fail to see the problem..  Yet the 39 accounts in my guild do.  Turning off experience does not shut off xp gain if you are a quester.  Being a quester with the xp the way it is makes you leap forward in levels, and thus surpassing the content in which you wish to remain.</p>

[White_Wolf78]

<p><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote><p>when is GU 50 comeing out  ? is there a update we can have ?</p>

[swedago]

<p><cite>Kadmiel@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Ilucide wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>We'll get the ability for characters to turn off quest & exploration experience into GU50. Unfortunately it was really just too late to get that code change in for 49. We don't want to take away anyone's style of play. =)</blockquote><p>when is GU 50 comeing out  ? is there a update we can have ?</p></blockquote><p>The expansion comes with GU50</p>

[liveja]

<p><cite>Tomb@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Zahne@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You can turn off combat XP, and you can disable the new bonus given for characters at level 80.  I fail to see the problem, and I'd rather they spend development time on class balance then mucking around further with ways to restrict progression in this game.</p></blockquote><p>You may fail to see the problem..  Yet the 39 accounts in my guild do.  Turning off experience does not shut off xp gain if you are a quester.  Being a quester with the xp the way it is makes you leap forward in levels, and thus surpassing the content in which you wish to remain.</p></blockquote><p>GU50 is bringing a method of turning off quest XP as well, is it not? So SOE is working to fix this issue, correct?</p><p>With that in mind, what are people still arguing about???</p>

[swedago]

<p><cite>Flaye@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Tomb@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Zahne@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>You can turn off combat XP, and you can disable the new bonus given for characters at level 80.  I fail to see the problem, and I'd rather they spend development time on class balance then mucking around further with ways to restrict progression in this game.</p></blockquote><p>You may fail to see the problem..  Yet the 39 accounts in my guild do.  Turning off experience does not shut off xp gain if you are a quester.  Being a quester with the xp the way it is makes you leap forward in levels, and thus surpassing the content in which you wish to remain.</p></blockquote><p>GU50 is bringing a method of turning off quest XP as well, is it not? So SOE is working to fix this issue, correct?</p><p>With that in mind, what are people still arguing about???</p></blockquote><p>This is a discussion board...  Hall Monitors are paid =)</p>

[swedago]

<p>This is ridiculous....  Not only have they accelerated the XP from combat & quests...  Now this:</p><p>All of your characters will now receive a 10% experience bonus for each character at the maximum level. (Up to 50% max). You’ll also receive a tradeskill experience bonus for each character at the maximum tradeskill level. Your current experience bonus will be displayed on the character selection screen. This experience bonus can be disabled on a per-character basis by right-clicking on the experience bar.</p><p>I have 5 level 80s, so not only do my new toons get the curse of the XP increase from GU49, but add a 50% XP increase because of my prior accomplishments...</p>