Please turn on AA gain in preparation for expansion!

[Kraetec]

<p>I mean this most sincerely -- couldn't we have AA gain turned back on in preparation for the expansion?   I mean, would it be so bad for us to have the ability to get some AA points now even though we can't spend them?  </p><p>It's just that we know we're going to be able to earn more in a month, so why make us wait?  It'd be nice to be able to go out and do some older quests, etc... now in order that when the expansion comes out, we'll be ready to do NEW content exclusively.</p>

[Mythal_EQ2]

<p>I don't mean to disappoint you, but that will probably not happen... </p><p>However, if you want to pre-load on xp by doing quests, all you need to do is complete everything but the last step of each quest you want to do, and then when the expansion hits just spend 30 minutes turning them in. Sure, you may miss out on quest lines, but hey... There'll be a ton of new quests, mobs, and other ways to get AA xp with the expansion the old quests won't be needed anyway.</p><p>D.</p>

[Killerbee3000]

If they allow you one month ahead to earn the extra aa's then you will make a post one month earlier that there is nothing to do in the new expansion.

[DragonMaster2385]

<p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.You could do a bunch of quest, but do you want to spend the first half hour running around old world zones? Instead, do collections and just wait to turn them in until the expansion.</p>

[Sir Longsword]

<cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.</p></blockquote>Please tell me your kidding.  What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines? 

[DragonMaster2385]

Thier reasoning is that it gives you an incentive to do the new content instead of just transfering all of your AAs to the new tree. The same thing happened when EoF came out, but they soon merged them. It may or may not happen with TSO, but I think it is a good move on thier part to increase incentive to play.

[Sir Longsword]

<cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote>Thier reasoning is that it gives you an incentive to do the new content instead of just transfering all of your AAs to the new tree. The same thing happened when EoF came out, but they soon merged them. It may or may not happen with TSO, but I think it is a good move on thier part to increase incentive to play.</blockquote>Yes they merged them because doing it that was was dumb so they fixed it.  I hoped they would have learned from that.My incentive to play is the enjoyment from the game and xpac, not SOE or someone else's perceived incentive.  To me limiting how I spend the AA's I've earned is a negative, not a positive. 

[bleap]

<cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.</p></blockquote>Please tell me your kidding.  What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines?  </blockquote>BEcause they figure everyone will be fionished with teh expansion in a month and if you get your AAs before hand you will leave that much earlier and won't come back until the next expansion. There is no level cap increase so people won't be sticking around real long for this expansion anyway. I expect a steep drop off in a matter of a month or so after release..

[Sir Longsword]

<cite>bleap wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.</p></blockquote>Please tell me your kidding. What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines? </blockquote>BEcause they figure everyone will be fionished with teh expansion in a month and if you get your AAs before hand you will leave that much earlier and won't come back until the next expansion. There is no level cap increase so people won't be sticking around real long for this expansion anyway. I expect a steep drop off in a matter of a month or so after release..</blockquote>I didn't realize the only reason to get the expansion was AA's.  They added a new AA line and the ability to get 200, where I spend them should be of no concern to anyone but the person paying the bill.  So what if i put some in this line?  I still have the other lines to complete. 

[CrazyMoogle]

<cite>bleap wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>BEcause they figure everyone will be fionished with teh expansion in a month and if you get your AAs before hand you will leave that much earlier and won't come back until the next expansion. There is no level cap increase so people won't be sticking around real long for this expansion anyway. I expect a steep drop off in a matter of a month or so after release..</blockquote>Nah.Also, level cap increases are a reason to stop playing for me.  This game increases the cap way too often as it is.  It was a level cap increase that drove me to finally quit EQ1.  I pay for these games to play them and make my character more powerful, not to get meaningless levels that make my character weaker.

[DragonMaster2385]

The difference between doing it in EoF and doing it in TSO is EoF had content 1-70, so you had plenty to do to keep you occupied for a year, while TSO is 50-80 with no new starting city or player race.

[Zarador]

Same reason that you can't earn past 0% into the trade skill level or adventure level once you hit level 80. Actually it makes sense because when new expansions unlock new levels, be it crafting, adventuring or AA, they raise the bar so you have a goal in that new expansion (aside from just experiencing new content).  Everyone starts with the same caps in place and with no "jump start" into level.  You no longer see (for the most part, since we have collections in the game) "Ding" 3 minutes into logging into the game. I'm not going to start with the condemnation of various play styles, you play how you enjoy the game.  I will however state that I feel it's important that we all have the same starting line when expansions are introduced, then take it from there.

[Sir Longsword]

<cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote>Same reason that you can't earn past 0% into the trade skill level or adventure level once you hit level 80. Actually it makes sense because when new expansions unlock new levels, be it crafting, adventuring or AA, they raise the bar so you have a goal in that new expansion (aside from just experiencing new content). Everyone starts with the same caps in place and with no "jump start" into level. You no longer see (for the most part, since we have collections in the game) "Ding" 3 minutes into logging into the game. I'm not going to start with the condemnation of various play styles, you play how you enjoy the game. I will however state that I feel it's important that we all have the same starting line when expansions are introduced, then take it from there. </blockquote>I'm not advocating bonus AA over the cap of 140 before the xpac. When the xpac does come out everyone is <i>at least</i> 60 AA's short of the goal line, but where the player chooses to put the one's they have already earned should not be limited.

[DragonMaster2385]

I agree. I think starting everyone at the same point is a good idea instead of allowing people to get a lead before it's even released.

[Sir Longsword]

<cite></cite>NM.I'm derailing the OP.

[Zarador]

<cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote>Same reason that you can't earn past 0% into the trade skill level or adventure level once you hit level 80. Actually it makes sense because when new expansions unlock new levels, be it crafting, adventuring or AA, they raise the bar so you have a goal in that new expansion (aside from just experiencing new content). Everyone starts with the same caps in place and with no "jump start" into level. You no longer see (for the most part, since we have collections in the game) "Ding" 3 minutes into logging into the game. I'm not going to start with the condemnation of various play styles, you play how you enjoy the game. I will however state that I feel it's important that we all have the same starting line when expansions are introduced, then take it from there. </blockquote>I'm not advocating bonus AA over the cap of 140 before the xpac. When the xpac does come out everyone is <i>at least</i> 60 AA's short of the goal line, but where the player chooses to put the one's they have already earned should not be limited. </blockquote>But that is one of my points.  When the expansion arrives, EVERYONE will be short 60 AA's in the new expansion line, exactly how it should be.  I'm guessing that Sony learned from experience that "Peer Pressure" is not always a good thing for a game.  Look at the new leveling curve, like it or not, it was designed to catch new/existing players up to players that have reached the "end game" levels.  Now if you change this, some players will have a huge gain when the expansion is released and will be pressuring other players to catch up.This was very clear in Everquest Live in the early days when higher level guilds recruiting certain classes required that you have a certain amount of AA's in certain lines or at least be close to that goal. Players were "pressured" into spending every non-raiding moment grinding out those AA's.  Of course those players with huge amounts of AA were the ones who set the bar for the others.  At least with this method in place, everyone starts out the additional line at the same point.

[DragonMaster2385]

<cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>NM.I'm derailing the OP.</blockquote><p>Assume that you can earn AAs now and not spend them until TSO comes out and be able to use them on the new tree:</p><p>If I quit the game 4 months ago and I start TSO at launch, I start with 0 AAs that can go into the new tree.</p><p>Knowing about the expansion for a couple of months, you decide that you are going to save them up and not spend them.  You end up with 10 AAs and can apply them directly to the new tree within minutes of the servers being up.</p><p>That is how it has the potential to be unfair.  And if you saw the leaked AA information, you would see how much of an edge it can give.</p><p>Edit: lol at your edit; it's not derailing the OP.  </p>

[Zarador]

<cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>NM.I'm derailing the OP.</blockquote><p>Assume that you can earn AAs now and not spend them until TSO comes out and be able to use them on the new tree:</p><p>If I quit the game 4 months ago and I start TSO at launch, I start with 0 AAs that can go into the new tree.</p><p>Knowing about the expansion for a couple of months, you decide that you are going to save them up and not spend them.  You end up with 10 AAs and can apply them directly to the new tree within minutes of the servers being up.</p><p>That is how it has the potential to be unfair.  And if you saw the leaked AA information, you would see how much of an edge it can give.</p></blockquote>Point very well made.This expansions character improvement progression is AA based, not level based.  Progression in the expansion needs to be limited to effort applied after the expansion is released, just as it would be were it a level increase instead.People seem to have a difficulty in these games understanding that a "well built" character is more powerful than a character that is simply leveled.  You can "feel and touch" levels. You can't really appreciate the fine tuning that additional abilities add until they are built up to a point of being very beneficial. Cruel as it may sound, I almost wish they did as they had in Everquest Live and require pre-requisites to unlocking different tiers of AA.  Something to the effect of "To advance this abilitity in Wizard II you must have unlocked that ability in Wizard I; to reach that ability in Wizard I you needed to unlock such and such line in General"  This would put the new lines at a "premium" since it requires a prior investment into character advancement.

[Sir Longsword]

<cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>NM.I'm derailing the OP.</blockquote><p>Assume that you can earn AAs now and not spend them until TSO comes out and be able to use them on the new tree:</p><p>If I quit the game 4 months ago and I start TSO at launch, I start with 0 AAs that can go into the new tree.</p><p>Knowing about the expansion for a couple of months, you decide that you are going to save them up and not spend them. You end up with 10 AAs and can apply them directly to the new tree within minutes of the servers being up.</p><p>That is how it has the potential to be unfair. And if you saw the leaked AA information, you would see how much of an edge it can give.</p><p>Edit: lol at your edit; it's not derailing the OP. </p></blockquote>The OP wanted to earn more then 140 AA's before the xpac arrives.  I don't agree with that.  I'm only advocating that it should not matter where I chose to put AA's I have already earned.   For example, I have a 50 Pally with 65 AA's.  When the xpac goes live if I chose to respec AA's or have a few not spent I should be able to put them anywhere.  Same goes for my Inquisitor with 123 AA's. If I were to start a new toon AFTER the xpac I could put those points anywhere I wanted.  Why limit what people, who have been playing, can do with their own toons?

[DragonMaster2385]

<cite>Zarador wrote:</cite><blockquote>Cruel as it may sound, I almost wish they did as they had in Everquest Live and require pre-requisites to unlocking different tiers of AA.  Something to the effect of "To advance this abilitity in Wizard II you must have unlocked that ability in Wizard I; to reach that ability in Wizard I you needed to unlock such and such line in General"  This would put the new lines at a "premium" since it requires a prior investment into character advancement. </blockquote><p> sounds like a good idea <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Brigh]

<cite>Khayleigh@Najena wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>bleap wrote:</cite><blockquote>BEcause they figure everyone will be fionished with teh expansion in a month and if you get your AAs before hand you will leave that much earlier and won't come back until the next expansion. There is no level cap increase so people won't be sticking around real long for this expansion anyway. I expect a steep drop off in a matter of a month or so after release..</blockquote>Nah.Also, level cap increases are a reason to stop playing for me.  This game increases the cap way too often as it is.  It was a level cap increase that drove me to finally quit EQ1.  I pay for these games to play them and make my character more powerful, not to get meaningless levels that make my character weaker.</blockquote><p>Levels were always > all in EQ1.</p><p>Isn't it the same here?</p>

[Zarador]

<cite>Brigh wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Khayleigh@Najena wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>bleap wrote:</cite><blockquote>BEcause they figure everyone will be fionished with teh expansion in a month and if you get your AAs before hand you will leave that much earlier and won't come back until the next expansion. There is no level cap increase so people won't be sticking around real long for this expansion anyway. I expect a steep drop off in a matter of a month or so after release..</blockquote>Nah.Also, level cap increases are a reason to stop playing for me.  This game increases the cap way too often as it is.  It was a level cap increase that drove me to finally quit EQ1.  I pay for these games to play them and make my character more powerful, not to get meaningless levels that make my character weaker.</blockquote><p>Levels were always > all in EQ1.</p><p>Isn't it the same here?</p></blockquote>Yes...and No!As the game progresses, in a linear way (like this expansion) then the AA abilities become more and more important.  Simply being level 80 won't be desirable anymore.  Even looking as it stands now, think about the benefits that some classes gain.  From a Wizard's standpoint, AA's allow me to do more damage with less resists for less power at a further range along with enhancing my ability to gain power faster as well as unlocking specialty spells.  The list goes on with quite a few rather nice perks gained. While levels in general "define" the character (Level 80 Looking for Group); AA abilities "refine" the character allowing you to be far more effective and desirable once you get in that group. Since this will be a Linear expansion with dungeon type "missions" there should be far more grouping amongst the higher level players.  Such grouping (as it did with the missions in Everquest Live) will produce regular groups of people that tend to trust those who have performed well with them in the past.In my humble opinion, this will be the caveat of fast leveling.  Yes, your level 80, but your not as well prepared as the player that is level 80 with a ton of AA's so your not the asset that you assumed you would be simply by being level 80.  If this system is adopted much in the way it was in Everquest Live, then players will no longer be able to simply farm out good gear and hit level cap to be "refined".  The more time (I hate the word effort in a game) put into your character the more effective they will be.

[LordPazuzu]

<cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.</p></blockquote>Please tell me your kidding.  What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines?  </blockquote>I think they actually want you to play the expansion and earn the AAs that way, instead of preloading and getting a ton of the new ones right away from old content.

[Zarador]

<cite>Sulan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Diknak@Butcherblock wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>And just to clarify to prevent confusion, you cannot earn AA points now and just not spend them until the expansion is released. Any AAs earned now will lock to the existing trees.</p></blockquote>Please tell me your kidding.  What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines?  </blockquote>I think they actually want you to play the expansion and earn the AAs that way, instead of preloading and getting a ton of the new ones right away from old content.</blockquote>The answer can be found in the experience changes from 20-70.  They discovered that many players (not all) compare themselves to the general population and if they find themselves lacking, they get discouraged.  So your in a group and the guy next to you explains how it's day two of the expansion and he has all sixty points put into the new line.  Look at all these new great enhancements!  Hey...in a few weeks....never mind (sighs).Seriously though, changes were made long ago to insure that everyone starts at the same MAXIMUM point in an expansions.  Your capped at "0" in trade skills and adventure levels at 80 for a reason. AA's are no different I would assume.  So at release, barring quest/collection turn in's, we all start at zero and work forward.

[habby2]

<p>1)  You shouldn't be able to earn xp for things that aren't in game yet</p><p>2) No, any AA's you've earned pre-expansion should be required to be spent on pre-expansion AA's.  I honestly believe they should make you max out all the previous trees before you can move on to the new trees (progression)</p>

[Azekah1]

<cite>Sulan@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Hammerfist@Blackburrow wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Please tell me your kidding.  What is SOE's reasoning behind not being able to put unspent AA's in the new lines?  </blockquote>I think they actually want you to play the expansion and earn the AAs that way, instead of preloading and getting a ton of the new ones right away from old content.</blockquote>is there any new content that is not for level 80's?

[feldon30]

Kind of beating a dead horse, but the current "bonus XP weekends" are meaningless for level 70+ players. We need bonus Quest XP and bonus AA xp. Combat XP doesn't mean much in Kunark, and who is really going to get into a solid Sebilis group* at level 71-76?*I mention Sebilis because whenever I post that Combat XP is useless for level 71-80, I see responses from folks in raid guilds saying they put together a group and were getting all kinds of XP in Sebilis. Realistically, you don't see exploratory/XP Seb groups with members under level 77.....