So AOD has been out for a month, what's your opinion? [Archive]

TwistedFaith

01-10-2012, 03:37 AM

So AOD has been out for a month now what are your thoughts about the "expansion", did everyone feel it was worthy of the name 'Age of Discovery'? My own opinion is that it is somewhat of a disapointment. The main features of the expansion all seem to have died a death, with mercs being the only feature that I use, and even they are now flawed simply because there's nothing new to do with them. The dungeon maker stuff was crazy popular for the first week but has since disapeared. We had guildies designing zones and being really into it for the first week then because nobody wanted to run them they simply gave up on them. I personally found them horrid and pointless from the outset and I don't see how SOE hope to get people interested in them beyond making loot so insanely good that people will be forced to do them. Something I can see happening honestly.The apprentices I would not really call content, making one item a day is hardly engrossing content. I like the idea of the recipes but again, it's just a massive timesink that really doesn't count as content in my eyes.Mercs are fun, I don't know anyone who has a issue with them beyond some silly bugs. If there's one feature that would be nice to see enhanced it's these. Look at how SWTOR handles companions. The only downside of mercs is that there's nothing to do with them. The content has for most people simply been played to death, LFG for Ascent for the 1000000 time etc.Reforging is something that I think I have done once, again a feature with no new content. It's a nice idea but there's no depth to it at all.The game needs a ton of new content to keep people playing, Butcherblock is becoming a wasteland, simply because there's nothing to do, there's no new zones, new epic questlines, nothing. The 20 AAs were just gotten so insanely, my ALT got his done in 35mins on double XP day. I hope the so called new content supposedly coming in February is good because I am seeing more and more people simply abandon the game. What happened to amazing questlines like the claymore that took you weeks, all we seem to get now is a endless supply of marketplace "content" and rubbish features that die a death.

Miapa

01-10-2012, 04:26 AM

Definitately not worth it. Honestly, it should've been between $10 and $15.Mercenary. Rating: Fair. I really only use the Bard mercs and maybe a healer. I don't see a point in the others.AA Increase. Rating: Bad. 20 AA increase and nothing new? Meh.Tradeskill Assistant. Rating: Fair. I wish that new crafting recipes actually had to do with the crafting class.Dungeon Maker. Rating: Bad. I ran one dungeon and was bored out of my mind. There is no scripting or layout design. Everything just seems generic because of it.Beastlord. Rating: Good. I think this class is well designed, even if it is slightly overpowered and other classes desperately need a rework.Reforging. Rating: Fair. I tested it once to convert a badly designed item from a raid to something else and it seemed as if I completely lost one stat and gained barely anything of the second stat.This expansion feels like a quick cash-grab from 2 weeks of development work to make up for the lost money during the major outage due to their network security. That and make some money for EQNext.

Arcturys

01-10-2012, 04:51 AM

Well I guess we all knew what to expect in at least one regard: there is no new content. I really wish SOE would've just kept it honest and stuck with the "adventure pack" advertising they were originally using, instead of the later "expansion pack" labeling which was quite misleading.All AoD included was simply new features. I think most people enjoy the majority of these features, but after the fact I really do have to say I feel rather cheated by the full expansion pack price they placed on a collection of simple features. Velious was the same price, and offered enough content to keep us entertained for months, and more is on the way. AoD didn't offer anywhere near the same entertainment value.As the OP said, the Dungeon Maker already seems on the decline a mere month after it was released. And I don't care what definition someone tries to apply, it did not count as "content." Tradeskill apprentices are certaintly being used consistently and frequently by everyone that got one, but that accounts for a few minutes a day, and unfortunately I have to say it's more along the lines of "Okay, here's the WORK I need to get done today before I can PLAY." It's like homework or chores that just need to be finished first. It certainly isn't content, and I think if we are honest, most people do their daily TA training and quests for the chance at a colossal reactant rather than for the recipes themselves.What do I find myself doing pretty much every day? The exact same things I was doing before AoD even came out, aside from the aforementioned daily "chores." I'm playing in the exact same zones and dungeons, doing the exact same quest timelines, and farming the exact same gear for my alts. Nothing has really changed after I spent my $40. To put it another way, if I had NOT spent that $40, I would still be playing the same way today as I am playing right now. Minus the "chores."The mercs are pretty bugged. They are really no better than PUGs, in that they seem to randomly do their job or just pull some kind of NPC version of AFK. Again, they aren't new content, and don't really add anything to the game. They just allow you to play when you can't find a group (which we could actually do before AoD), or they are just barely good enough to allow you to solo in places that were a tad too tough before, but they aren't good enough to allow you to go to places that were way out of your league before. Again, they are simply allowing you to bide your time in PRE-EXISTING content. Content that was already there before we spent $40.The reforging is a nice feature. The particle effects are okay I suppose, but rather redundant since we were already capable of custom weapon appearances via the appearance inventory. Most of them are nothing special. It's only the highest tier essences that have the more impressive particle effects (although some are over the top). The part I've gotten some use out of is the reforging of blue stats. That's been fairly handy when you have gear that was good, but maybe wasted a blue stat on something you didn't really need or care for. Being able to change those into something more useful is great, but then the limitations on which stats can be changed and what they can be changed into greatly diminishes the potential of the system.I'd say the only true new experience offered by AoD is the beastlord. Personally I have no interest in the class, but for those that are enjoying it, because of the way the class is built, it offers a fun new way to play. However, I can't imagine it's all that new and exciting once you get used to the class, since you still have to level up through the same old zones and the same old quest lines - the ones that were already there before you spent your $40.EDIT: Oops, forgot about the AA increase. Well, the 20 was kind of useful, in that I was able to pick a couple more abilities than I had before, but the AA caps on all but the Tradeskill tab remained the same. I was stuck to pretty much the same choices as before. The other problem was that they didn't change the XP needed for those 20 AAs. I don't know about 35 minutes as the OP stated, but I did finish the 20 AA on my two mains on double XP day. It only took a few dungeon runs. So now what? Back to the stuff I was doing before. You know, the stuff I was doing back before I spent the $40.In summary, I'm pretty much playing the exact same game I was playing before, but I spent $40 in there somewhere and seem to have very little to show for it.

Wurm

01-10-2012, 05:29 AM

<cite>Arcturys wrote:</cite><blockquote>In summary, I'm pretty much playing the exact same game I was playing before, but I spent $40 in there somewhere and seem to have very little to show for it.</blockquote>My opinion exactly.

daalberith

01-10-2012, 05:44 AM

Beastlords are alright, but overpowered. I expect them to get toned down a bit, but who doesn't expect a new class to get adjusted a bit after being added to a game?I have yet to use a merc. I don't really have a need for them. Maybe if I was trying to level up a troub or templer solo I'd consider it just to speed things up. I decided to re-roll my old defiler insted of pay for a server transfer and see no need for it on him, though, so maybe not.The dungeon maker has a lot of potential I think. It's a nice tool for RPers and story tellers if nothing else. How it shapes up in the long run I think will have a lot to do with how the devs handle and support it. Seeing some of the most popular dungeons being farms is disappointing, but not surprising for someone who witnessed a similar system and how it was used in another game.I'm not overly impressed with reforging for the most part, but I admittedly have barely used it.I don't generally craft so apprentices mean nothing to me. Others seem to be liking them, though, so more power to them.Overall I pretty much knew this expansion wasn't worth it going in. That seemed evident to me from the lack of information SOE was putting out about the details of it. My wife did talk me into getting the collector's edition for one account, though, for the house and the mount for all of my characters. I only purchased the base version of AoD for my other active account because of tripple SC. Otherwise I'd likely have skipped it. The only thing that has seemed more of a rip off to me so far has been Freebloods, to be honest.

Matanzas

01-10-2012, 05:48 AM

GU63 better be pretty freaking amazing for the lack of content given in AoD. There must be something they were working on.

gourdon

01-10-2012, 05:49 AM

Mercs open up the game for when you're playing solo or in a small group. They definitely aren't the most competent, but they are better than some players. Are they at the 20th percentile, which is what I suggested before AoD? I'm not sure. The healers are really good at noticing effects and curing. They are not so good at healing. It would be nice if we could take better control of their activity.First, we really need more control over their leash with the ability to adjust the distance at which they react and what distance they close to. It would also be nice to be able to adjust their priorities. They should know whether they are supposed to get aggro or to avoid it. There should be the ability to balance between cure, heal and dps on clerics. These things might be difficult to do and it might just be better to let us have some spell/CA buttons for our mercs on our bars. Think of it as the ability to request a particular activity. It would also be nice to be able to do something to improve our mercs. This might affect the cost to hire them, but having activities invested in improving them would make them more interesting.The drop rate of the colossal reactants should be cumulative until one is dropped in order to even out the distribution of them. This is not a complaint about the availabity of them in the game. They are nicely rare. There shouldn't be a change in the expected overall drop rate. The problem is that on the TS apprentices, all other rewards are virtually worthless in comparision. This makes it more a lottery than a product of how many crafters you have. In dungeons, there are a lot of different items that drop, many with comparable value, so the lottery aspect is greatly reduced.As far as TS apprentices go, it is nice to see that there is an alternative path to having something decent that doesn't require raiding. I would have preferred that the recipes just include many rares harvests and adornment materials to produce across all tiers of the game. It would be pretty cool if to make a level 90 item, you started with a level 10 item and upgraded it to 20, 30 etc, up to 90, using rare harvests and adornment material all the way up.The Dungeon Maker is going to need improvement in the tools we have to add extra elements to encounters. Just being able to play your own character in them will improve them. We also need time for the good ones to come out. Further, there needs to be a way to avoid having craptastic token grind dungeons end up in the Hall of Fame. The poop is floating to the top in this case. That will change to some degree when characters can play in them. This will particularly the case if they are viewed as places to get XP. Give them elevated XP to make up for the lack of quests or give a quest at the entrance to finish the dungeon. I would also consider making the rewards maybe half the usual random drops a creature of their level and difficulty would drop instead of Dungeon Marks. This will reduce the exploitability of an all boss dungeon. Maybe there should just be a limit on the number of boss level treasure drops per mob in the dungeon. Give a few of the DMs out as the quest reward, but keep the number extremely low for real characters versus avatars since they will get normal treasure. This will prevent high powered characters from razing weak dungeons to farm DMs.At first I though reforging was a total waste. However, it seems like part of that perception was based on the fact that I value stats differently than the Devs do. They have removed crit mit and crit chance from the list of abilities to alter, so they really should allow a stat to be completely removed and for the efficiency of transfer to be 100%, especially since this ends up being a tool to fix itemization lapses.Beastlords need to be nerfed early and often. I'm not a fan of the play style, so I have little else to say about them.The AAs are a ridiculous disappointment. Only 20 stinks. My main has adventure XP turned off and already is at 312, almost 313 AAs, and this is a character with 5000ish quests done. I really wish there were another advancement point category beyond AAs with minimal utility to give us essentially unlimited character advancement without creating a meaningful power divide.If we don't get a new overland zone and some dungeons in the Q1 GU, then people can complain about content quantity. The Freeport revamp is a little bit light for a GU, but it isn't all that bad.Finally, the bugs are getting out of hand. There needs to be elevated effort toward bug squashing. However, I have no idea where they can get the manpower. Maybe they can have some Saturday bug days in exchange for something nice for the Devs as compensation?

LaeliaJS

01-10-2012, 06:10 AM

My opinion....Dungeon Maker -- Building them is way more fun than playing themTradeskill Apprentices -- Colossal reactant lotto machinesBeastlord -- Taking away meatbeast warders was not niceMercenaries -- I looked around for the billy doll epic merc but couldn't find itReforging -- My inquisitor has 340 multiattack now, woohooEdit:AA -- I put my last 4 points into run speed because there was nothing left to buyConclusion -- I only really bought AOD for the lavastorm house and so I'd never have to do the griffin quest again.

Arcturys

01-10-2012, 06:10 AM

<cite>gourdon wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really wish there were another advancement point category beyond AAs with minimal utility to give us essentially unlimited character advancement without creating a meaningful power divide.</blockquote>Been saying this for a while myself. It's one thing EQ1 had that EQ2 is sorely lacking. There is virtually an unlimited number of ways to customize and improve your character in EQ1, and there's always something more to do. I've already hit 90/90/320 on two of my characters (more are getting close), and I've only been playing for a year now. A year is probably considered slow for some people, but I play pretty casually and don't even grind that stuff out hardcore (too boring for me). But even with my laidback play style, it's too easy to hit the caps, and then there's not really anything else to do. Sure there are other quests I never completed, but why bother now? I'm at the cap, the XP is a total loss, and 95% of the quest rewards are now useless to me. In other words, it's too easy to get capped in EQ2, and then boredom follows. We've lost too many guildies in the last few months, and they were uttering those words: "I'm bored."There needs to be an alternate Alternate Advancement category. Based on EQ1, it would include things like gradual stat increases (health, power, attributes, etc.), and even things that in EQ2 would be equivalent to blue stats on items. They also used a scaling cost system to make some AA harder/take longer to earn. For example, tier one might cost 2 AA, tier two would cost 4, tier three would cost 6, etc. For that you might have gotten a +1% health gain per tier, or mana (power), or armor class (mitigation), and so on. Nothing major and unbalancing, but it gives us something more to do, and makes our characters better. In EQ2, it's pretty much just the gear. There's not much else you can do to improve your character. Ultimately most people end up with the same cookie cutter setup, because there are too few different-yet-viable options.There are thousands and thousands of points worth of stuff in EQ1's AA system. There's always more to do. That might be too much (it can be overwhelming), but we really need something more than what we've got at the moment. And an extra 20 AAs to the cap with no new AAs isn't the answer.

Elomort

01-10-2012, 07:41 AM

Overall I am very happy with the feature pack/DLC (I also agree that SOE got the terminology wrong on this).I have had a lot of fun playing my beastlord and I am really getting a lot of use from my mercs, especially my elite one who has opened up a huge number of doors for my previously DPS weak warden.Moving forward I hope they live up to the "new zones for free" mantra and keep releasing paid for feature packs/DLCs ** As long as they stop calling them expansions **

Miapa

01-10-2012, 08:46 AM

<cite>Arcturys wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>gourdon wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really wish there were another advancement point category beyond AAs with minimal utility to give us essentially unlimited character advancement without creating a meaningful power divide.</blockquote>Been saying this for a while myself. It's one thing EQ1 had that EQ2 is sorely lacking. There is virtually an unlimited number of ways to customize and improve your character in EQ1, and there's always something more to do. I've already hit 90/90/320 on two of my characters (more are getting close), and I've only been playing for a year now. A year is probably considered slow for some people, but I play pretty casually and don't even grind that stuff out hardcore (too boring for me). But even with my laidback play style, it's too easy to hit the caps, and then there's not really anything else to do. Sure there are other quests I never completed, but why bother now? I'm at the cap, the XP is a total loss, and 95% of the quest rewards are now useless to me. In other words, it's too easy to get capped in EQ2, and then boredom follows. We've lost too many guildies in the last few months, and they were uttering those words: "I'm bored."There needs to be an alternate Alternate Advancement category. Based on EQ1, it would include things like gradual stat increases (health, power, attributes, etc.), and even things that in EQ2 would be equivalent to blue stats on items. They also used a scaling cost system to make some AA harder/take longer to earn. For example, tier one might cost 2 AA, tier two would cost 4, tier three would cost 6, etc. For that you might have gotten a +1% health gain per tier, or mana (power), or armor class (mitigation), and so on. Nothing major and unbalancing, but it gives us something more to do, and makes our characters better. In EQ2, it's pretty much just the gear. There's not much else you can do to improve your character. Ultimately most people end up with the same cookie cutter setup, because there are too few different-yet-viable options.There are thousands and thousands of points worth of stuff in EQ1's AA system. There's always more to do. That might be too much (it can be overwhelming), but we really need something more than what we've got at the moment. And an extra 20 AAs to the cap with no new AAs isn't the answer.</blockquote>I'd love to see this too. However, I don't think it'd ever happen. The progression-type content we're getting in Velious is boring and terribly thought of for the long-term. Having to do this content over and over to grind out hundreds/thousands of AA is a bad idea. It worked in EQ1 because loot actually means something and you were farming loot and gaining AA. A massive AA increase would only work with a completely different type of content.

kahonen

01-10-2012, 09:10 AM

Way overpriced.Mercenary. Never bothered. I'm sure some find them useful but if I want a healer, I'll group with one.AA Increase. 20 AA increase and nothing new to use them on? Do SOE even play this game?Tradeskill Assistant. Waste of time for 99% of players that will never see a rare to make the new recipes with. Nice recipes but the chance to actually use any of them is very slim due to cost of Colossal Reactants and the purely random nature of them dropping. Guy in my guild has received 3 of them for making simple, level 80, difficult-to-fail constructs for the daily quest. Best others have managed is a bunch of berries.Dungeon Maker. Waste of time. Tried a couple and decided to wait for SOE content (you do remember SOE - the people we pay to provide content?).Beastlord. Enjoying this aspect of AoD. Good class but probably going to be hit with a nerf bat in the near future. SOE have a habit of making things look attractive when they are initially introduced and than taking toys away. Reforging. Why bother? Allows us to replace one garbage stat with a even less of a slightly less garbage stat. Also allows you to add sparkly effects to weapons thereby increasing lag which in turn means you need to turn graphics settings down so you can't see them.SOE haven't done themselves any favours with AoD. Especially so considering promises made about "free" new content to follow shortly. If that doesn't arrive and, more importantly, perform properly, that could be the end of the road for an awful lot of people.

isest

01-10-2012, 09:30 AM

I got invited to beta 3 days before it went live, and I was glad that I did. I cancelled my pre order for me and the wife's account. 40 bucks for aod, you got to be joking. I still say that. A big 0 no content, and they want 40 bucks. They can keep it until its 10 bucks, and no I am not buying any station cash to get it.Now if they offer it for 10 bucks, I might get it, however I only logged in 5 times since aod went live, as I been off in another universe far far away. The freeport revamp was the straw that broke this old dinosaurs back.

Mystfit

01-10-2012, 09:45 AM

Reforging-haven't tried itMercs-nice, but hasn't really allowed a family of three to turn into a group of 6 in much DOV content, which I'd kind of hoped for.BL's-haven't played mine (except AA weekend) since Meatbeast was removed. The spirit of that class SHOULDN"T have been on back of one mob, but I'm a girl, sue me!Apprentice-tired of common raw rewards but I like them!Dungeon Maker-I'd like to see more options open up, but a good start!!!Did I get my money's worth, I think so. I spent $30 at Hardee's last night with the family. Food was gone in 5 minutes.

Shawnyve

01-10-2012, 10:23 AM

I knew it was a feature pack - I thought they made that mighty clear when they were marketing it.Money wise, I bought some Station Cash on a triple cash day and got both expansions digital collector's editions for $50, so I think it was worth the price.

Griffildur

01-10-2012, 10:31 AM

I bought it whwn triple cash promo was running so it was not much at all. Personally i find it not worth it. BL is interesting but does not make up for the lack of any content.My guild used to be in the top raiding guilds on Splitpaw - mainly the first one after the hardcore guilds. Now we don't even raid x4 anymore, there's not enough people for that. Most are bored silly and refuse to raid the same old stuff, others have gone onto other games.I find myself not having the motivation to do anything , can't even be bothered to finish the BL epic.I expect I'll cancel my sub soon.

Elomort

01-10-2012, 11:18 AM

<cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>Tradeskill Assistant. Waste of time for 99% of players that will never see a rare to make the new recipes with.</blockquote>I know that tomorrow I will be making a killing on the broker as I sell food and drink that adds 2% more dps for mages. I am a few days off food that ups the healing but will get there.I am not sure yet on the 3% extra block food/drink but i think that will be after the healers.Not bad getting those stats out of food with just common materials.

Lochr

01-10-2012, 11:53 AM

AoD is the new horse armor.It's absolutely terrible. $40 for 20 AAs? 20 AAs you didn't want when you had already spent 245?The mercenaries suck. They just aren't good enough to allow you to do anything you couldn't solo before.The tradeskill apprentice in theory could be nice, but the ridiculous rarity of the colossal reactants means that you'll never be able to make anything in the level 90 tier that you research.The dungeon maker feature I suppose would be cool if you are a decorator. Last month. The rating feature means that any new dungeon you make isn't going to ever show up in the top ten list, and who is going to search for a dungeon outside that? They are unbearably boring to play. You get a monster avatar with 1 lousy attack on a fast timer, and a lousier AE attack on a slow timer. How fun does it sound to mash the 1 key over and over? You DO get to press the 2 button occasionally...I had a subscription since day 1. I cancelled last week because I didn't want to give Sony another $40 three weeks after they basically stole $40 from me.

Grumble69

01-10-2012, 12:17 PM

SOE's business model of free content + paid features needs to be set on fire and put out with a good ol whizzing contest. The only thought that goes through my mind is--"why did I pay for this?". I haven't done that with any prior expansion. The old model was just fine. Go back to content-based expansions. If I have to pay for DoV Part 2, so be it. I've had a lot of gripes about DoV's itemization. But in terms of getting what I paid for, DoV has been a good product.

Torri

01-10-2012, 12:21 PM

I wouldn't have paid $40 for it, but had enough SC from previous promos so got it for under half off.Have not rolled a BeastlordHave not hired a MercHave made good use of re-forging to get myself some multi-attack. Couldn't care less about particle effects, just more lag in my eyes.Have dutifully slaved for my Apprentices (Thought the idea was supposed to be the other way around) and seen no Reactant in close to 200 tries. Two server discos so far from creating items. The gear is nice, would like to see a neck added somewhere. That may be too much to ask for since you're not breaking a set bonus or losing a red slot from raid-dropped stuff to use them.Got about 3/4 of the way through designing my first Dungeon before running out of desire to place stuff. Inability to make linked encounters really bummed me out. Was frustrating playing as a basic avatar. I will revisit them as my character and see if there is any more enjoyment.The AA merely reflect the already established minor incremental upgrade we see now in gear. 20 AA for a .02% increase in player power = Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Khurghan

01-10-2012, 12:51 PM

Beastlords - a lot of fun but don't remotely seem like EQ2, serious question did the devs rip code from eqnext?Mercs - no clue haven't used them.Dungeons - no clue haven't used them.Reforging - So so, overly restrictive mechanics for many classes though. If i have an item with 150dps mod and 1ma I can't reforge any of that dps to MA? Design decision or coding issue?TS Apprentices - A good idea on paper but the execution seems poor, the ratio of T9 reactants to level 90 tradeskillers with the recipes means at some point soon tradeskillers will be practically paying to do combines not charging for them.20 AAs - <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" /> LOL <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" />Echoing what Mrrshan said above the high-end game at least for eng-lang euro players is in desperate need of CPR (although I don't really think AoD is that much of a factor in that).

hansomepete

01-10-2012, 12:54 PM

I feel well ripped off, honestly.I wasn't going to do it much like I wasn't going to do DOV. My guildies talked me into it and I bought the DOV expansion sort of glad I did so I'm not that upset. Again a guildie got it and said the beastlord was worth it, Inever played eq so I didn't really care about that. Said we can reforge our old wepaons but after seeing it and using it It's a great I dea but a lousy way to do it. You have to nerf the heck out of a stat, just to get a little of something else. If it was true reforging you should be able to take a stat from an old weapon and put it on another higher level weapon. That would be a true reforge, not just take a stat and replace it with a low grade extra stat. Greater customization would make work for crafters because people would want to buy stuff to grab the stat off of it.Apprentices eh its ok, new stuff is cool, reactant prices are through the roof!!!! i've only been able to get the lv80 stuff myself. The extra potion you get from the daily is a nice additive.If it wasn't for the double station cash I problably would not have bought it. Think it came out to be 19 bucks or something like that. For what I got and paid for yea that's about right for me.

S1lence

01-10-2012, 01:07 PM

<cite>Xivian@Permafrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Definitately not worth it. Honestly, it should've been between $10 and $15.^^^ This ^^^</blockquote>Mercenary. Rating: Broken. I love the effort and concept but it just doesn't work as a reliable in-game tool. Only usefulness is as a wildcard in PVP.AA Increase. Rating: Meh. Should have allowed at least 2 of the points to be used to get an additional heroic endline.Tradeskill Assistant. Rating: A++ Here, I swore i wouldnt go back to crafting but the reactants actually put the payday back into the mix now. The recipies are way too imbalanced and i'm sure will be nerfed at some point but that decision isn't made by the crafting devs.Dungeon Maker. Good. at the start. When DM released there was a huge incentive to run them to farm transmutables as well as getting random doohickeys from the mystery boxes. As usual someone sniveled and it got nerfed resulting in a great idea that gives very little rewards. I really think 2 improvements would be allowing sales displays in DM's and to have Reactants/Rares be purchasable with marks (even if it takes a huge amount).Beastlord. Rating: Good. class that is continuing to improve. Well thought out Mythical timeline also however the need to go back and kill old DOV content to get an AOD Myth kinda depressed me.Reforging. Rating: Fair. It needs MUCH more lattitude on what can and can't be modified.Gameplay: HORRIBLE. low framerates, constant LD's along with even worse zoning times made me feel as if i've gone back to the PS2 "Loading" Screen.

Avirodar

01-10-2012, 01:29 PM

<cite>TwistedFaith wrote:</cite><blockquote>So AOD has been out for a month now what are your thoughts about the "expansion", did everyone feel it was worthy of the name 'Age of Discovery'?</blockquote>The "discovery", as I view it, is how little SOE cares about this game anymore.All of the news and webcast releases by SOE staff before AoD, completely lacked any kind of excitement and passion. Other than SmokeJumper trying to lay on the spin, the other staff seemed bored and disinterested. Reforging : SOE's way of saying "The ItemBotScript2000 we use to make gear, is useless"Beastlord : SOE selling out.Mercenaries : As if EQ2 needed to become more of a single player game...Dungeon Maker : Flopped as hard as Dungeon Finder. SOE ignored the players, yet again.Tradeskill Apps : A joke that made "dedicated tradeskillers" think they were important, until they tried using it.20 AA's : SOE adding something so that people who did not care about the other junk, might pay $40 for 20 AAs.It is my belief that SOE does not want MMO players, anymore. They want cow clickers.

Raffir

01-10-2012, 01:39 PM

I like the Beast Lord class, though I don't play it much because I'm working on other classes right now. I don't use Mercs cause I don't need them and I don't use the dungeon maker. I have yet to try out tradeskill apprentices and reforging...but will get around to it one of these days.But given the number of alts I play, the flying mount perk will more than make the expenditure pay for itself since I hate the squawking gryphs with a passion and usually buy another mount as soon as I can.Raf

Chronus1

01-10-2012, 01:44 PM

Other than giving me a merc that cures mandates that I can name Mandatecure and giving a really good source of alt loot/plat (farming reactants from ToT and eow) I don't really see much here. Woo, 2% more potency food and drink and mage bp! It's like an entire adornment's worth of potency!Mercs: AI is poor with cure times being amazingly slow to the extent they let me down on Dreadlord Dsmoni's spores of death. If you just need a cure but not particularly quick (mandates) they're amazing.Reforging: Scouts are happy, melee priests are happy. Ok-ish way to make up for amazingly poor thought gone into items.Tradeskill apprentices: Good alt loot/plat source from reactants. Also nice source for MA gear for healers.Beastlords: Pretty good, OP as heck but that was to be expected. Nerf incoming after brawler nerfs finally hit...Dungeon maker: I can't even be bothered to do it for the 5% potency temporary adorns. Cool for decorators I guess.20 AA: It resulted in near nothing of use on my warlock, on my bruiser it's looking like not being too useful and the 4 inqs in the guild said they may as well not bother allocating the points. Finally created some varitation in specs though due to everything being so worthless.

Zorastiz

01-10-2012, 02:06 PM

Mostly I don't have much good to say about it except the MERCS, my friend, her daughter and I are the only ones left in game from the old days. We don't, can't or are not interested in raiding so we rolled new toons and have each purchased a MERC.One tank, one healer and one DPS, we run quests without them and HQ's with them, it makes it really fun due to the lack of grouping, broken dungeon finder and absent friends.They work pretty well for robots, I don't know why you all are complaining about them, they are not supposed to be players with skills and uber gear, they are what they are and for us at least they work well.

Kenazeer

01-10-2012, 02:11 PM

<cite>Zorastiz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>...so we rolled new toons and have each purchased a MERC.</blockquote>I think they are commenting about their performance at cap.

Minzi

01-10-2012, 05:56 PM

Mercenaries are great for leveling. At 90 they kind of turn into an extra boost to let you do things you couldn't QUITE do solo. Finished the swashbuckler fabled epic with one, for example. About where they should be I think. Dungeon maker as shipped was pretty dull, looking forward to the changes. Tradeskill apprentices have given me a bunch of recipes so far but I'm missing reactants to make anything. Those are going to take a while to trickle down in price. Beastlords have been great for me as I normally play a fighter; everyone wants scout gear and is happy to pass on the fighter gear. Otherwise no experience. 20 extra AAs were great for my main, utterly useless for aforementioned swash. But then, it seems like swashbucklers only have about 200 good AAs including the heroic tab. The best effect I have seen since the xpac is that I am having a crazy easy time getting groups and pickup raids. I picked up 9 gear upgrades since Friday and went from having a huge surplus of pure primal velium shards to needing 18 more just to finish reaugmenting.

Zorastiz

01-10-2012, 08:18 PM

<cite>Kenazeer wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Zorastiz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>...so we rolled new toons and have each purchased a MERC.</blockquote>I think they are commenting about their performance at cap.</blockquote>Maybe so, regardless if people expect that they can buy a Merc and run groups at lvl 90 as if you had 6 good players in them then I think they are expecting too much, but that's just my opinion.

Odys

01-10-2012, 09:14 PM

Mercenaries are fun for me, they may destroy further the newbie game.I was unable to use reforging to get my MA up, since priests item come with almost nothing to be reforged it does not help.Players dungeons are not interesting when you must play an avatar with 3 skills.Beastlords are fun but a bit overpowered . Indeed the item revamp turned scouts/fighter into gods at least from 1 to 70. Itemisation revamp has been done very unwisely, classes with high auto attack benefit much much more from it than others.Apprentices are ok, wish they would do tasks for you, like making 1000 arrows or 20 bags.The 20 extras AA with the 100/100/...48 restriction are almost useless for my healers, they help my paladin very marginally.

Dreyco

01-10-2012, 09:42 PM

I will say this about the expansion:It's not that the features are BAD. It's that they're not fleshed out enough right now, and I think we're going to have to wait to see them more fleshed out, which is frustrating after spending 60 bucks on the collector's edition.Examples:Tradeskill Apprentices introduce some neat new recipes... but overall? They are just repeating the same "craft one item" quest over and over again. There really isn't any content associated with them. It's just a timesink. I feel like an opportunity was missed here to add in some really cool "specialization" series of quests... where you go out and, by completing given quests, you get access to new recipes. But instead it's simply a "click and wait". Heck, you could have even timelocked the quests themselves. Instead? It's literally something I click on and forget about for 15 days. Feels a bit like a waste.Reforging has some awesome potential, but I just... don't use it unless it's decorative. I guess that's partially because I'm not a min-maxer, and the stats I have on my characters are just how i'd like them. I don't feel the need to swap them out... yet.Beastlords? Not a pet class fanatic. The people I know that play them like them, so that's a plus. But for me? Eh. Not really my playstyle.20 new AA's? This seems like the easy way out now that i've been able to see it. It also takes away from what little specialization the game has when it comes to AA's, which is a HUGE detriment IMO. A tree system like EQ2's should NEVER allow for someone to simply "get near all of the AA's". That's silly. Instead, they should have invented a few new abilities, even if it was just 10 per tree with 20 max.The Dungeon Builder has a great precedent set up for it. I liked fiddling around with it in beta and on live. However, like I indicated at the start of this thread, it just feels like it's seriously lacking in features. For example: Being able to play as your own character is HUGE when it comes to something like this, at least for me. They are implementing this feature, but I really do feel like it should have been there live.The mercenaries are a great feature... but I feel that they don't perform as they should. At launch the assist function was broken, which near eliminated their usefulness as an "NPC Party member". That, and at later levels they really can't hold up to snuff. I suppose, to some extent that is okay, but I still think that my tank Merc should be able to at least handle the earlier tiers of DoV.Overall? Once again, i'll reiterate; the features that were introduced in this expansion are strong, but they need to be fleshed out more to be worth the price tag in my opinion. Right now, they feel like the product just isn't finished, with the exception of the Beastlord; and that needs to be fixed. Dungeon finder needs to have more meat added to its bones. Mercenaries need to have some of their basic functionality fixed, and their level 90 performance improved. Tradeskill appreentices need CONTENT, not a TIMER. And reforging, while it seems cool, just doesn't really apply to me.So what's my verdict?I want to see the above worked out, because right now, I feel like I dumped 60 dollars for things that I have mostly forgotten. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> It's not that the features are bad. It's that the features need more STUFF associated with them. If you release a feature bare bones, it's not going to be very memorable. However, if they were to add in stuff to improve them? I'd say it's worth it. Right now? Nope.

Guy De Alsace

01-10-2012, 09:45 PM

Was a big mistake to tout this as an expansion. In no possible way can you compare this to any other expansion. If you bought this full price - I have a bridge in London I can sell you.I bought it on triple day as then it was down to the price it should have marketed at. What in the world were SOE thinking that this was remotely worth the price of a full blown expansion? /boggle.I like the researchers because I can make something thats actually worthwhile. Beastlords are ok but as someone said here they dont feel like an EQ2 class. Haven't used mercs.Didnt do a player dungeon after I found I couldnt even play my own toon in them. Have used reforging once.Would have paid full price if there was a total graphics overhaul, bringing it up to 2012 standard plus an old world server which contains everything as it was prior to DoV (ie pre dumbdown). Maybe if Qeynos, Freeport, Halas, Kelethin, Gorowyn and Neriak were all revamped instead of one city.

Odys

01-10-2012, 10:14 PM

20 new AA's? This seems like the easy way out now that i've been able to see it. It also takes away from what little specialization the game has when it comes to AA's, which is a HUGE detriment IMO. A tree system like EQ2's should NEVER allow for someone to simply "get near all of the AA's". That's silly. Instead, they should have invented a few new abilities, even if it was just 10 per tree with 20 max.Very true, indeed my warden can almost entirely fill her warden tree once totally useless aas are removed. Indeed designing new aas would have meant work and thinking about classes abilties.

Xethren

01-11-2012, 01:43 AM

I have to agree. This 'expansion' so far would get a resounding MEH if I have to review it.Beastlords... coolMercs... make them smarter than a tree stumpDungeon Maker.... havent touchedReforging... havent touchedNew AA... just keep piling more onto the heinous AA grind.Next time finish an 'expansion' before it is released. You should not release, and I will not buy another expansion that is only features up front and "Oh all the extra content is down the road with no ETA"

Arcturys

01-11-2012, 02:09 AM

As some others have pointed out, the AA increase didn't really do anything for most of us because we were already at or near the caps on the individual AA tabs, or at least had already bought everything worth having. Having an extra 20 AA but nothing to spend it on was sort of reinforcing the fact in our minds that you guys added nothing new with AoD. Big mistake. I honestly believe the only reason for the +20 AA was so that we could have our tradeskill and adventuring AA both without having to need a third profile slot on the AA mirrors. This is reinforced by the fact that the only tab that got an increase in AA cap was the tradeskill tab.The reforging system seriously needs to be less restrictive. I thought we were going to get the ability to also change base stats to compensate for the numerous reitemization errors? For example being able to change the WIS on that scout-only item to AGI. What happened to that idea? Limiting us to a few blue stats, and preventing us from adding to existing blue stats, really cripples the potential of it. So this item has a crappy MA score and I want to get rid of a useless blue stat for more MA, but I can't. Why?<cite>Xivian@Permafrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'd love to see this too. However, I don't think it'd ever happen. The progression-type content we're getting in Velious is boring and terribly thought of for the long-term. Having to do this content over and over to grind out hundreds/thousands of AA is a bad idea. It worked in EQ1 because loot actually means something and you were farming loot and gaining AA. A massive AA increase would only work with a completely different type of content.</blockquote>That's why I suggested a little less, for two reasons. One - it would be less intimidating. Two - it would not require as much grinding. Still, it would give us a benefit from the fact we are already running dungeons, and it would allow us to gain some type of benefit from quests we never got around to completing. I didn't mean to insinuate it should be exactly like EQ1. After 10 years I had managed to grind out over 4,000 AAs, and there was still so much more to do. It just got boring, so I wouldn't want to see something exactly like that. I only meant to suggest the Devs look at the EQ1 system for ideas for more alternate character development, separate and different from our existing AA system. <cite>Zorastiz@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite> <blockquote>Maybe so, regardless if people expect that they can buy a Merc and run groups at lvl 90 as if you had 6 good players in them then I think they are expecting too much, but that's just my opinion.</blockquote> No, I just expect the merc's coding to actually work worth a hoot. An inquisitor that just stands there getting hammered by AEs until he dies, never once healing himself, is not what I would call a fun feature - especially not when I'm in the middle of fighting a mob that is going to kill me if I don't have any heals at all. I'm not looking for player replacements, but I am expecting this feature to work properly. That's not asking too much at all.

Mohee

01-11-2012, 03:11 AM

Tons of new bugs. Wether you own it or not, you're affected. Enjoy! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" />Tradeskill apprentices: meh~Beastlords: meh~ I have one, i hardly play him. This class doesn't appeal to me.Mercs: I didn't need them before, I dont need them now. Things were easy enough already.Price: To muchDungeon Maker: Can be fun to design your own, but sucks that the most popular ones are just empty except for mobs for pure token runs.20 more AA points to spend: going into AA's you didn't find usable before for most classes.Reforging: Can be great for Melee classes, sucks for casters.

Trynt

01-11-2012, 03:16 AM

<cite>Mohee wrote:</cite><blockquote>Reforging: Can be great for Melee classes, sucks for casters.</blockquote>I'm sure this may be a true statement for some classes, but the caster dps classes in my guild benefit a lot more from reforging than the dps scouts do. Haven't heard much on it either way from the fighters.

Arcturys

01-11-2012, 03:30 AM

<cite>Trynt wrote:</cite><blockquote>Haven't heard much on it either way from the fighters.</blockquote>I think I got about 40 or 50 extra MA out of reforging all my gear, removing blue stats I didn't benefit from or care about, so that was nice. But as I and many others have pointed out, the system is just too limited right now. It had so much potential, but they throttled it badly. Not being able to add to existing blue stats, or being able to affect ALL blue stats really hinders it. There's some crap on my gear I really don't want, but the limitations force me to keep them. I have to pick from one or two and decide which I like the least in order to boost it to something else.And the conversion rates seem unbalanced.AND why can I not entirely remove the previous blue stat?! That just leaves me with even more cluttered stats on gear. I don't want to be left with 0.5% ability casting speed.Oh... and why can't I link reforged gear in chat so that others can see the changes? Yeah, lots of reforging complaints.And I could swear they had previously told us that the reforging system was also going to be able to swap stats on gear, such as restoring that fighter piece that used to have STR on it, but ended up with AGI after the reitemization. Where'd that ability go?

Valdaglerion

01-11-2012, 03:43 AM

<ul><li>Mercs - the ones people enjoy get pulled out of the game and you spend days hearing people ask what happened to them. They replace them with substandard ones it seems. </li><li>Apprentices - worthless. Too many artifical timesink throttles on them. 80% of the recipes are not desired because they share an ultra rare component with the 20% of useful recipes. It takes 6 months to acquire all the recipes. Too much effort for too little entertainment and usage.</li><li>Beastlords - fun class but we are all waiting for them to nerf it because people seem to be enjoying it.</li><li>Dungeon Maker - this is what SOE needs to take note of right here. The majority of the dungeons set up by players are exactly what SOE continually fails to give us - GOOD GRINDING DUNGEONS. They are just set up to maximize time vs reward. When people are able to run their own toons in this things and if real loot or better loot vendors are set up these dungeons will likely take over the stuff the dev team has been putting out. As they are right now, they are pretty vanilla but development seems to continue on them. Heaven forbid if they actually allowed us to create respawning mobs in those dungeons /rolls eyes. </li><li>Reforging - very limited use, disappointing on most counts. Paying to apply single use appearance adorns /shrug . . .nothing to get overly excited about</li></ul><div>SOE really needs to pay attention to what their players are doing with regard to playing content in ways not originally intended primarily because it tells you where the interest of your players lies. If they are constantly working around your intent, perhaps you need to change your focus?</div>

gourdon

01-11-2012, 05:34 AM

<cite>Artemiz@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><ul><li>Mercs - the ones people enjoy get pulled out of the game and you spend days hearing people ask what happened to them. They replace them with substandard ones it seems. </li><li>Apprentices - worthless. Too many artifical timesink throttles on them. 80% of the recipes are not desired because they share an ultra rare component with the 20% of useful recipes. It takes 6 months to acquire all the recipes. Too much effort for too little entertainment and usage.</li><li>Beastlords - fun class but we are all waiting for them to nerf it because people seem to be enjoying it.</li><li>Dungeon Maker - this is what SOE needs to take note of right here. The majority of the dungeons set up by players are exactly what SOE continually fails to give us - GOOD GRINDING DUNGEONS. They are just set up to maximize time vs reward. When people are able to run their own toons in this things and if real loot or better loot vendors are set up these dungeons will likely take over the stuff the dev team has been putting out. As they are right now, they are pretty vanilla but development seems to continue on them. Heaven forbid if they actually allowed us to create respawning mobs in those dungeons /rolls eyes. </li><li>Reforging - very limited use, disappointing on most counts. Paying to apply single use appearance adorns /shrug . . .nothing to get overly excited about</li></ul><div>SOE really needs to pay attention to what their players are doing with regard to playing content in ways not originally intended primarily because it tells you where the interest of your players lies. If they are constantly working around your intent, perhaps you need to change your focus?</div></blockquote>Now I know who is rating up the craptastic dungeon mark grinds.

dawy

01-11-2012, 06:27 AM

The "expansion" is 110% meh..shocking really i thought it was burn out quickly but i think it shows how little "content"£ there is (well nothing really is there?") and when you're paying £30 for it thats not good enough.

ShinGoku

01-11-2012, 12:25 PM

Well I personally didn't buy it but several guildies have. I am just smug I saved myself $40.00 for nothing of substance.The general consensus is "why did I waste my money?".Personally I am wondering how much longer I am going to stick around, I have taken a 2 week break from the game (to play skyrim and the new batman game etc) but I am not finding myself twitching to log in like I once did.

Andok

01-11-2012, 02:10 PM

While being far from my favorite expansion, AoD is still a huge bargain for my entertainment dollars.I am really surprised how much I like beastlords. I normally do not like pet classes, but the unique combat mechanics of beastlords is very fun. Starting over and exploring the new class abilities and choices is a little like a new game in a game I already enjoy. I hope they create some new classes with new, unique combat mechanics in future expansions.I also like mercenaries a lot more than I thought I would. They offer me a lot more options of what I can do when I am soloing or duoing. I would pay double if they would allow me to hire more than one mercenary.I know it wasn’t part of the expansion, but I really like free-to-play too. It brought a lot of old friends back to the game, and I have seen more new-to-EQ players than I have in a very long time.Overall, I am a very satisfied customer.

Fendaria

01-11-2012, 03:25 PM

I'm extremely dissapointed and majorly anoyed. AoD was a flop.First, $40 is way to much. To then offer triple station cash and allow people to buy AoD for 1/3 the price a few weeks later...just hurts. It just makes me NEVER want to buy anything again. I feel like I've been scammed.Content? Besides beastlords, I don't see it.Dungeon Maker: just fills up my bags with those drops. No interest in using it.ReForging: Used it once. Its nothing special. The differences are minor, doesn't do any good stats for my mage. I can say if it was removed from the game, I wouldn't miss it or notice it at all.Apprentices: They haven't done a thing for me. I haven't seen one collosal except for one sold in auction. My crafter, the Provisioner was given a bunch of recipies that use the increadibly rare collasal for no one would ever craft one. And now the recepies are all broken. They were an interesting idea but a complete failure in execution. Not really much more than what some new 'receipe' books would have given.Beastlords: Fun, but so overpowered they need to be reworked. Seeing a new undergeared BL top a raid parse over well raid geared toons is just wrong. They seem fun, but are they fun because they are overpowered?20 AAs: The main reason I got AoD. But looking at my toon, the AAs do nothing for me. I have no where to spend them that makes any sort of difference. I think they put this in just to make the raiders feel they had to order it.Mercs: Seem like the most useful part, but I haven't used them at all yet. Soloers seem to like them and I guess thats good, but the few groups/raids we tried them on was mostly a fail. Too buggy. Again, I have no use for them myself.This wasn't an 'expansion'. I don't know what it was. A fluf station cash package I guess.I would have been happier if this had been given away for free and they made us purchase the new content they are giving away.Oh well, too late now, damage has been done. I just hope SmokeJumper learns from this.Fendaria

Gilasil

01-11-2012, 03:48 PM

I'm having fun with my beastlord. That by itself is worth it. Finally a DPS class that fits me. I love it. I plan to play around with mercenaries when I get time but haven't yet. Likewise the new crafting possabilities. I'm not sure when or if I'll get to advancing my 90/300 bruiser up to 90/320. I'm having too much fun with my beastlord.I'm sure that some level 90s who just want more things to raid will find this expansion kind of a void. They don't have to buy it. But for me it's great and addresses my interests far better then most exapansions.Seeing as how I'm leveling up a new character, and since any new content would almost certainly be for level 90s only, I don't miss the lack of new content. If nobody had told me I wouldn't have even known there was no new content.Likewise, with the influx of new players, level 90 new content wouldn't have been a great place to put their effort for this expansion. For this expansion only they need to concentrate on things new players (most with low level characters) can use.Edit: removed comments about balance as I haven't played beastlord enough to be saying anything at all.

Goozman

01-11-2012, 04:00 PM

I'd give this expansion a less than meh.I came back solely for mercenaries, and they are a resounding failure. First of all, all but 2 of them are not even viable; unless you have a static group of people, each with their own mercenary. The tanks take hits no better than a mage player, many of the mercenaries don't use their abilities, they add a bunch of healers but only one of them offers useful buffs on top of healing (and none of them do damage that's worth even bringing it up). The Inquisitor is the only viable mercenary for pretty much all scouts, all fighters and probably all mages, as well. Priests get to choose between one of the tanks (at least one of which is broken) or scouts.I've suggested they let us set up the AI's for mercenaries, like in other games. The merc abilities would probably need a staunch nerfing first (30,000 damage on a 4 second recast won't do) but that's fine, since we can make them actually use these abilities, rather than just autoattack.Reforging does not interest me in the slightest. I have a sort of OCD about having long lists of oddly numbered stats on items. Until this offers a 1:1 conversion, I'd rather not even bother. What's the point of forcing us to leave 1 damage per second on an item?The Dungeon Maker is something else I find really lame. I have yet to see one that's not a bunch of random mobs, randomly placed. There's no ingenuity here, no creativity, just boring crap. Plus you have to actually pay for stuff to design your dungeon? We paid $40 for this stupid feature, we should be able to use it...Apprentices are pretty stupid, as well. They made it sound like they do all sorts of stuff for you, but they do nothing? They offer a 1 minute daily quest with a .0000001% chance to give you a useful item... I'm almost through learning all my 90 recipes on 2 characters, and I've yet to get a reactant. When I'm out of recipes to research am I just screwed?Beastlords... are the only thing worth a darn here.So in conclusion, I wouldn't give a crap about anything else; I wanted mercenaries... but they are just so terrible. Maybe I'd have more fun with them if anyone grouped, ever...

Lempo

01-11-2012, 04:00 PM

<cite>Fendaria wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm extremely dissapointed and majorly anoyed. AoD was a flop.First, $40 is way to much. To then offer triple station cash and allow people to buy AoD for 1/3 the price a few weeks later...just hurts. It just makes me NEVER want to buy anything again. I feel like I've been scammed. ...This wasn't an 'expansion'. I don't know what it was. A fluf station cash package I guess.I would have been happier if this had been given away for free and they made us purchase the new content they are giving away. Oh well, too late now, damage has been done. I just hope SmokeJumper learns from this. </blockquote>Smokejumper is still on vacation, I mean why shouldn't he be considering the state the game is in right now, besides when he got Smedley's tweet (<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=513398">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513398</a>) he began dancing a jig.

Frell

01-13-2012, 04:15 PM

I'll keep this response (reasonably) quick.While I do believe the "expansion" was a little expensive, there were some nice features however niche they may be (mercs/apprentices/etc).What annoys me to no end is Dungeon Maker customization. Let me ask rhetorically, is it fair to have us pay $40 for an expansion and then try to sell us stuff we can use to make the dungeons unique or challenging? The items that increase mob difficulty/etc should be given with the expansion, not sold separately for tokens or station cash.The result is that people have to "farm" dungeons that are trivial in order to gain enough tokens to buy something, and at that stage people would rather take the 48 slot bag or the appearance mount and be done with dungeons rather than try to make one of their own which would require more farming.

isest

01-13-2012, 04:30 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Fendaria wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm extremely dissapointed and majorly anoyed. AoD was a flop.First, $40 is way to much. To then offer triple station cash and allow people to buy AoD for 1/3 the price a few weeks later...just hurts. It just makes me NEVER want to buy anything again. I feel like I've been scammed. ...This wasn't an 'expansion'. I don't know what it was. A fluf station cash package I guess.I would have been happier if this had been given away for free and they made us purchase the new content they are giving away. Oh well, too late now, damage has been done. I just hope SmokeJumper learns from this. </blockquote>Smokejumper is still on vacation, I mean why shouldn't he be considering the state the game is in right now, besides when he got Smedley's tweet (<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=513398">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513398</a>) he began dancing a jig.</blockquote>Well 200% increase in store sales, yea when you have several triple and double cash sales going on folks are going to buy more.40% more log in's for 1 week maybe300% new players, are they counting the ones that came back.I call shenanigans. Without base number these percentages mean nothing, just numbers pulled out of thin air to tout around to get folks attention at mmorpg and other places.Have we seen adds for the game or banners no. Are they going to re-invest their profits to help fund development to fix stuff, or is it just going to the dev team handling the fluff in the store to keep up with the store demand.Right now if you look Freeport server is heavy load, the rest are medium with 3 that are low, so hm-mm yea give me those numbers in 3 months after the new wears of the xpac.Kind of thought it was funny smedly posting those numbers you would think smoke would want to do that it suposed to be his baby, regaurdless of vacation or not.

Raknid

01-13-2012, 04:52 PM

<cite>Frell wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'll keep this response (reasonably) quick.While I do believe the "expansion" was a little expensive, there were some nice features however niche they may be (mercs/apprentices/etc).What annoys me to no end is Dungeon Maker customization. Let me ask rhetorically, is it fair to have us pay $40 for an expansion and then try to sell us stuff we can use to make the dungeons unique or challenging? The items that increase mob difficulty/etc should be given with the expansion, not sold separately for tokens or station cash.The result is that people have to "farm" dungeons that are trivial in order to gain enough tokens to buy something, and at that stage people would rather take the 48 slot bag or the appearance mount and be done with dungeons rather than try to make one of their own which would require more farming.</blockquote><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=510724">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=510724</a>Two of my quotes from that thread. Emphasis added this time around.<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>But you should check out all the good stuff you can buy with Dungeon tokens. As a solo or casual player you will be able to get good enough gear with dungeon tokens that you wont need to adventure for it, or even buy it from a tradeskiller. They even have statted food you can buy, repair kits, potions and totems to make you go faster, temp adornements that are better than tradeskiller made, and you can even use your dungeon tokens to effectively "buy" pells. There is everything there that you could ever need without having to adventure or even bother with those pesky tradeskillers.So even though you only get to run using one of four avatars, SOE has made it attractive enough that people will buy stuff off the market to make their dungeons better (higher scoring) so that they can earn those dungeon tokens.So buck up and bear it; SOE isn't going to let it go gentle into that good night.</blockquote><cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is probably where we are all wrong on our thinking. We think in order for it to be a success it has to be fun and/or widely used.We are wrong because SOE has not put this out there under a content driven model of design, they have put it out there under a monetized model of design.To them, success is measured in dollars generated and nothing else. 90% of the players could absolutely HATE it, and as long as it met their monetary targets it would be considered a "success."Let's just hope there aren't enough...really having trouble finding an adequate descriptor...let just leave it at plain people then, who will spend money on this so that SOE may learn a lesson.In the meantime...we are just going to have to get used to the fact that SOE judges stuff not by whether players as a group enjoy it, but by how much money it makes and that alone.Keep in mind that content driven design still has monetary goals, but the essence of the design process is to create something players will like and let it sell on the merits of its enjoyability, which is the prime factor. Monetized design starts with the idea of what can we create to get players to buy something else? It is essentially a psychological game that is played between the producer and the consumer, and its enjoyability is only a secondary factor; the prime factor is cash inflow.</blockquote>It's time people started waking up to what is going on.There is nothing wrong with participating and enjoying monetized content...but you should at least be able to recognize it for what it is.To the point of the thread: I got it fro X4SC (TY WalMart), so it was worth the price to me. I have messed around with a merc a few times...they are overpwoered; used my TS apprentices...way to easy a way to get a colossal reactant compared to adventurers; ran a couple dungeon maker dungeons...tedious; and have a baby beastlord so can't say much about that. I think it has provided, or will provide, $10 worth of entertainment, but I would be sorely disappointed if I had paid $40 for it.

Yaggaz

01-13-2012, 05:03 PM

It's not an expansion, it's a Game Update. Therefore it should be free or 1000 store points at the maximum.Sony won't get another cent from me until it drops to that price and I know for a fact I'm not definitely not a minority.

ShinGoku

01-13-2012, 05:17 PM

<cite>Yaggaz wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's not an expansion, it's a Game Update. Therefore it should be free or 1000 store points at the maximum.Sony won't get another cent from me until it drops to that price and I know for a fact I'm not definitely not a minority.</blockquote>/signed <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

SOE-MOD-04

01-16-2012, 12:23 PM

This post has moved: <a href="/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=500111&post_id=5703368" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=50011...post_id=5703368</a> Removed for trolling and sexual reference

Guy De Alsace

01-16-2012, 07:10 PM

Would have been an awesome Adventure Pack. You can't give people adventure pack content and sell it as an expansion though.People that got this on release...for the sake of everyone else please don't. It gives Sony more ammunition to release overpriced expansions with hardly anything in them.

Moldylocks

01-16-2012, 09:53 PM

<cite>Guy De Alsace wrote:</cite><blockquote>Would have been an awesome Adventure Pack. You can't give people adventure pack content and sell it as an expansion though.People that got this on release...for the sake of everyone else please don't. It gives Sony more ammunition to release overpriced expansions with hardly anything in them.</blockquote>Well, the precedent is set now and people gobbled it up to be an early adopter, or to "support SOE" (yes, I heard that line several times <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /> ). What it boils down to at this stage, as individuals, is to put your money where your mouth is. In other words, if you support the current business model, the product they are offering, and their vision, then keep playing and paying for what they are dishing up. If not, then stick to your guns about what you think is acceptable for you and do what you need to do.I did get AoD during the triple SC event because I wanted to play a BL. The rest of the features, not really for me. There may come a time when I will want a merc, but really, I don't have any problems with soloing my characters at all. The rest of it..meh. The Dungeon Decorator pleases some players, but it actually annoys me as it is a feature designed to move players directly into the Station Store. That's just a cheap move, imo, as the Store is shoved in our face enough as it is. Then again, the people that like to use the Dungeon Decorator, judging by their supportive posts, tend to spend SC often anyway so I guess it works out for them. Research Assistants, hmm, haven't played with it yet but it seems to be a bit of a timesink and it sounds like some of it is a bit backwards. In that I mean, you get a RA for your crafting skill and it produces recipes for an entirely other craft. But, whatever.Was it worth $40? Nope. Getting it on the triple SC event made it more palatable, but again, my opinion.Oh, and the tacked on 20 AA? Why did they even bother. I guess it was to add one more bulleted point on the list of features to flesh it out, but c'mon.I guess we will see what Feb brings. For those people that keep saying, "SJ promised..", you should remember (or do some reading) what has been promised and what was actually delivered in the last year and a half.

isest

01-16-2012, 10:14 PM

<cite>Moldylocks wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Guy De Alsace wrote:</cite><blockquote>Would have been an awesome Adventure Pack. You can't give people adventure pack content and sell it as an expansion though.People that got this on release...for the sake of everyone else please don't. It gives Sony more ammunition to release overpriced expansions with hardly anything in them.</blockquote>Well, the precedent is set now and people gobbled it up to be an early adopter, or to "support SOE" (yes, I heard that line several times <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /> ). What it boils down to at this stage, as individuals, is to put your money where your mouth is. In other words, if you support the current business model, the product they are offering, and their vision, then keep playing and paying for what they are dishing up. If not, then stick to your guns about what you think is acceptable for you and do what you need to do.I did get AoD during the triple SC event because I wanted to play a BL. The rest of the features, not really for me. There may come a time when I will want a merc, but really, I don't have any problems with soloing my characters at all. The rest of it..meh. The Dungeon Decorator pleases some players, but it actually annoys me as it is a feature designed to move players directly into the Station Store. That's just a cheap move, imo, as the Store is shoved in our face enough as it is. Then again, the people that like to use the Dungeon Decorator, judging by their supportive posts, tend to spend SC often anyway so I guess it works out for them. Research Assistants, hmm, haven't played with it yet but it seems to be a bit of a timesink and it sounds like some of it is a bit backwards. In that I mean, you get a RA for your crafting skill and it produces recipes for an entirely other craft. But, whatever.Was it worth $40? Nope. Getting it on the triple SC event made it more palatable, but again, my opinion.Oh, and the tacked on 20 AA? Why did they even bother. I guess it was to add one more bulleted point on the list of features to flesh it out, but c'mon.I guess we will see what Feb brings. For those people that keep saying, "SJ promised..", you should remember (or do some reading) what has been promised and what was actually delivered in the last year and a half.</blockquote>The above in orange is something we all should be thinking about, the promises vs what was delivered, as in lack off. I am also waiting until February, off playing in a different galaxy now but keeping an eye on a game i have 7 years vested in. I did not support the new business model, and if they keep gong that route they are not getting much more out of me, when my subs run out in may. I still refused to buy aod, as I hate the store, and don't use it, as I say I am not the demographic they are looking for anymore. I prefer my sub and that's it, and well if they fail to deliver on promised goods in february, well there is no reason to continue to fund them at that point.

Blissa2362

01-17-2012, 12:35 PM

My opinion is it was a waste of $40 the only good thing about it is the Beastlord and thats only because they are so over powered.

Bauglir

01-17-2012, 07:23 PM

I found the expansion to be a waste of money. My ratings, on a scale of 1 - 10 (10 being the best) for the key features are as follows:1. Dungeon Maker - 1 - Complete waste of time, the rewards are sub-par and would only appeal to players that will not be grouping much at level 90. I don't mind the cash shop items, I do mind the fact that they put what is supposed to be "valuable" rewards out there which turn out to be really worthless to me at 90. If we could use our actual characters in the Dungeon Maker it would actually mke this maybe a 2, if the rewards were helpful, like maybe 25 plat per completion or whatever it would make this maybe a 5 out of 10 for me.2. Dungeon Finder (This might be apart from the expac but I will comment on it anyways) - 1 - Another complete waste of time. This needs to be re-launched with cross server connections and a system that insures groups form up before they zone in.3. Beastlord class - 3 - If I wanted to play a scout I would have one by now. I enjoy playing a pet caster.. that leaves me with 2 class choices Necromancer or Conj...ok maybe I am just hard to please but the BL is not fun to play for me. Waste of time. It is also very much over powered and needs a nerf.4. Mercs - 8 - This was the single redeeming feature for me. Since I can't find groups it helps me solo content to gain more AA. It also helps when i do find a group short on heals.Overall I give the expac a 3.3/10. It was a failure. If new and better content does not come out soon I doubt I will be playing this game by the time my SK gets to 90.

Dreyco

01-17-2012, 07:35 PM

I wouldn't say that the features aren't worth $40. I certainly thought they were. It's why I paid for them.What isn't worth $40 is the current state that the features are in. I stated why in my previous post in this thread. They aren't fleshed out enough. They feel unfinished...Which makes me hope that they are going to flesh them out a bit more. All of them need some kind of work to feel complete... (With perhaps the exception of the Beastlord). Can see my previous feedback post in this thread for details as to why/how.

Mohee

01-17-2012, 08:09 PM

Don't expect to much in terms of getting AoD Features completed/fixed/refinedThey're working to hard on bringing us a half-finished, bugged filled, ignored testers version of Velious Part 2! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" />I can't wait!I waited until the Triple SC day to buy AoD for myself. I still feel like I paid to much <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" />

dawy

01-17-2012, 08:19 PM

<cite>Mohee wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't expect to much in terms of getting AoD Features completed/fixed/refinedThey're working to hard on bringing us a half-finished, bugged filled, ignored testers version of Velious Part 2! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" />I can't wait!I waited until the Triple SC day to buy AoD for myself. I still feel like I paid to much <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Yes Febuary is racing at us not much in the way of hype for Velious part 2 is there?

Moldylocks

01-18-2012, 12:12 AM

<cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mohee wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't expect to much in terms of getting AoD Features completed/fixed/refinedThey're working to hard on bringing us a half-finished, bugged filled, ignored testers version of Velious Part 2! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" />I can't wait!I waited until the Triple SC day to buy AoD for myself. I still feel like I paid to much <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Yes Febuary is racing at us not much in the way of hype for Velious part 2 is there?</blockquote>Its their current trend. like with AoD. If you don't release information until moments before release, you create a build-up of surprise which eventually becomes joy when we see the quality of the finished product. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" />

Lempo

01-18-2012, 03:18 AM

<cite>Moldylocks wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yes Febuary is racing at us not much in the way of hype for Velious part 2 is there?</blockquote>Its their current trend. like with AoD. If you don't release information until moments before release, you create a build-up of surprise which eventually becomes joy when we see the quality of the finished product. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Indeed. Besides they have not started rapidly throwing DoV pt 2 together at least another week before that process begins.

Gilasil

01-18-2012, 03:27 PM

Last night I finally got around to using the mercs. They were great. Went into Kaladim with my baby beastlord and the place was crawling with little 2-3 person at-level groups filled out with mercs. If anything the place could have used some more instances.I'm looking forward to snagging a healer friend of mine tonight and doing Kaladim (and maybe some other places) right. There's some 30ish places I've wanted to go to but could never get together a balanced group to tackle them. Doing them grey with a level 90 just doesn't strike me as fun at all. Now all that's necessary is to get who I can and fill out the key spots with mercs. Which is really cool.So I add mercs to beastlords as really great things introduced with AoD. As far as I'm concerned, and for the way I play, AoD is the best expansion ever. More land area would have been cool and all, but these changes are just making the game more fun. Even old content that's been around for years is fun with these changes.As I've said before, if you don't want it don't buy it. But for some people these features are really enabling more fun gameplay.Instead of having to get A Balanced Group, just get some friends and go dungeon delving. And isn't playing a game with friends what it's all about?

Nrgy

01-18-2012, 03:31 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Moldylocks wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Yes Febuary is racing at us not much in the way of hype for Velious part 2 is there?</blockquote>Its their current trend. like with AoD. If you don't release information until moments before release, you create a build-up of surprise which eventually becomes joy when we see the quality of the finished product. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Indeed. Besides they have not started rapidly throwing DoV pt 2 together at least another week before that process begins.</blockquote>They said they finished all that last February and would be releasing it periodically thru GU's over the next 2+ years. I'm guessing they will be trying to rebalance those zones to the new Beastlord powerhouses so they don't one-shot all the bosses on day #1.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 03:47 PM

They said that EQ2 players would be here in aweek when AoD was released. I'm just sayin'

Nrgy

01-18-2012, 04:07 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>They said that EQ2 players would be here in aweek when AoD was released. I'm just sayin'</blockquote>It was ...Then taken down becasue it wasn't ready. Speculation on GU63 is late February from what SJ indicated, implied and maybe said. I seriously doubt it will be released until after April 1st. I'll put a Benjamin on it.

ShinGoku

01-19-2012, 07:18 PM

<cite>Nrgy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>They said that EQ2 players would be here in aweek when AoD was released. I'm just sayin'</blockquote>It was ...Then taken down becasue it wasn't ready. Speculation on GU63 is late February from what SJ indicated, implied and maybe said. I seriously doubt it will be released until after April 1st. I'll put a Benjamin on it.</blockquote>Speaking of SJ, where is old Smokey hiding?

Mohee

01-19-2012, 07:58 PM

Think he's playing some other MMO =P

isest

01-19-2012, 09:21 PM

<cite>ShinGoku wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nrgy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>They said that EQ2 players would be here in aweek when AoD was released. I'm just sayin'</blockquote>It was ...Then taken down becasue it wasn't ready. Speculation on GU63 is late February from what SJ indicated, implied and maybe said. I seriously doubt it will be released until after April 1st. I'll put a Benjamin on it.</blockquote>Speaking of SJ, where is old Smokey hiding?</blockquote>Somebody said he was on vacation, i am wondering if it is a permanent vacation. I know some folks take 2 weeks at a time but 3 weeks off heck at the company I was with you had to have 5 years to get that many weeks and nobody was allowed to take more than 2 weeks at a time if they had it. His last post was December 27th about mid day, so that's 24 days away from his game, almost the entire time of the xpac. Got to wonder.

ShinGoku

01-20-2012, 08:23 AM

<cite>isest wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>ShinGoku wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Nrgy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>They said that EQ2 players would be here in aweek when AoD was released. I'm just sayin'</blockquote>It was ...Then taken down becasue it wasn't ready. Speculation on GU63 is late February from what SJ indicated, implied and maybe said. I seriously doubt it will be released until after April 1st. I'll put a Benjamin on it.</blockquote>Speaking of SJ, where is old Smokey hiding?</blockquote>Somebody said he was on vacation, i am wondering if it is a permanent vacation. I know some folks take 2 weeks at a time but 3 weeks off heck at the company I was with you had to have 5 years to get that many weeks and nobody was allowed to take more than 2 weeks at a time if they had it. His last post was December 27th about mid day, so that's 24 days away from his game, almost the entire time of the xpac. Got to wonder.</blockquote>It does make you wonder if he is playing swtor to scope out some ideas to steal for either the next overpriced game upgrade or eqnext <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Twinbladed

01-20-2012, 08:44 AM

BL mad OP, Mercs require less grouping, and on my server they happen to work in pvp with no mit rules against other players. There was 0 content that's new, the reforge system only allow you to adjust a hand full of stats, and crafters are getting reactants more than actual players in druner or eow/raidzones.

Tigress

01-20-2012, 09:47 AM

<cite>LaeliaJS wrote:</cite><blockquote>My opinion....Dungeon Maker -- Building them is way more fun than playing themTradeskill Apprentices -- Colossal reactant lotto machinesBeastlord -- Taking away meatbeast warders was not niceMercenaries -- I looked around for the billy doll epic merc but couldn't find itReforging -- My inquisitor has 340 multiattack now, woohooEdit:AA -- I put my last 4 points into run speed because there was nothing left to buyConclusion -- I only really bought AOD for the lavastorm house and so I'd never have to do the griffin quest again.</blockquote>i agree with you!i got the AOD CE when they had the triple SC promo. only reason why i got the CE instead regular was bc of that dang griffon quest. so happy to *never* have to do that again, woo hoo!! was it worth the additional $15 ($30 in my case for 2 accts)? probably not but i dont regret it. i'm glad that i waited to get the "expansion". at $40, it is overpriced. at just under $15, it is well priced. (in my case, it was $30 so i could get the mount.) this was not an expansion, it was a feature pack. just bc you call a tin chess set "silver", doesn't make it silver & it doesnt mean anybody will believe you. the EQ2 team should re-evaluate labeling any feature pack as an expansion pack bc it's always best to be upfront to the customers.Dungeon Maker -- i dabbled in this but quickly lost interest.Tradeskill Apprentices --this turned out to be a big disappointment <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" />.Beastlord -- its okay. i could take it or leave it. nice to have but wouldn't miss if it wasnt there.Mercenaries -- they are a fail. well maybe not total fail but they definitely need work. the inqis merc is the worst healer that i've played with in quite a while. sure, they werent supposed to be perfect but should be enough to keep my mini necro group alive. the SK tank was good. he kept aggro but his DPS seemed lacking as one named group heroic fight in great divide took 15 minutes with raid geared fury, raid geared mystic, bard merc and SK merc.Reforging -- i havent even tackled this. cant find much info on it and it just looks like its fluff.AAs -- not useful at all. It's dumb, really. If they had raised the cap on at least the class tree so you could get another line, then it would have been good. as it is, useless. sure there's a few AA pts that are nice but most of them are not things that i'm glad to finally buy. they gave us AAs for "tradeskill". That's what AA mirrors are for.