EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire - View Single Post - Supporting Returning Players and ideas for Refer-a-Friend?

StargateFanGirl · 10-06-2012, 12:28 AM

Do you really want to know what it would take to get me to return under your FTP model? Okay, but let me tell you about the player that you lost.

I've been playing SOE's games since Novemberr of '99 when I began playing EverQuest, I progressed to SWG (how I miss you!) when it came out and played that off and on individually or under a station players sub and when EQ2 went beta I was there and when it went live I was there as well - and have continued to be with few exceptions when my finances just didnt allow it. So I stepped back into the game about a week or so ago after canceling my sub since I think around March - I canceled my sub for 2 reasons the first was that I now have a satelite internet connection (no other option besides dial-up) and I get noticably more lag now than I did when we had cable at our old house in MMO's (it's also the reason I quit SWTOR - lag was even worse there - rubberbanding for the win) and the second one was that I was so angry over the shoddy way the whole transition with FTP was handled and then that joke you guys called an expansion I just didnt care enough anymore to deal with the lag and find a way to make the game playable - which I could have by turning down the graphics. By the way, that was the first time I have not purchased a collector's edition/special edition when it was available, I've always been willing to pay a little more for the extra's starting with the original CE, but the basic expansion "content" the dev team put into AoD wasn't worth paying $80+ for a few fringe benefits, I still cant believe I gave you guys $ for the normal version. I've always been one of the people who said it wont be as bad as you think it will whenever SOE changed something or started something new, I said just wait and see and usually it wasn't anything horrible and typically turned out just fine. Well this time I was wrong.

So, I stepped back into the world of EQ2 the other day, wanting to see if after a few months or so SOE had worked the kinks out of the new system. NOPE! I think it may actually have gotten worse.

My level 90 swashbuckler who was equiped entirely in Legendary and Fabled and my Mythical - everything minus my master crafted ranged weapon and my ammo bag were completely stripped from my character and my inventory was overflowing. And is still overflowing because I have no where to put any of that gear - not even in my bank or house vault (which is full of holiday house items, clothing etc :p ) and since most of my armor pieces are no-trade I cant stick them in one of my broker bags either (are they still atuned? I dunno). So even if I were willing to pay for equipment unlockers to unlock every single one of those items - which I'm not and then the upgrades that I know I'd get just from completing quest lines. I'm going to guess that they probably cant be unlocked unless they're actually in my inventory.

While I'm grateful that you grandfathered my existing race/class characters (my Woodelf Monk, my Dark Elf Bruiser and my Half Elf Paladin and probably the other 3 that are locked due to the character cap as well) and am sure that does not hold true for any new characters I might try to make, you've made it pretty much impossible for me to do anything with my main character and I feel this model is overly restrictive and extremely limited in it's expandability. I can do just fine with MC armor and arts on my alts, I dont really start investing in higher tiered armor until around 60 anyway and my next highest character is 32.

But you know, when you guys were talking about this FTP system, ya'll made it sound like everything would be unlockable, levels, classes, races, spells/CA's, tradeskills, equipment, bank slots, inventory slots, broker, plat cap, mail, chat, everything. There are 8 shared bank slots and silver accounts get only 2 to use and the rest cant be unlocked, there are 12 bank slots and silver accounts are limited to 3 with no unlocks. Plat is capped with no unlocks I'm not allowed to have more than 18pp on my level 90? I have more than that waiting for me to pick up on the broker alone and limiting bronze accounts to 5gp per level is just moronic. Silver accounts can recieve mail but not send it? Why? and it again can't be unlocked. Can't unlock my quest cap either. I'm a quest hound, it's not unusual for me to have a full journal.

I can't equip any of the heirloom legendary or fabled items I got from in-game holiday events on any of my characters either. What's wrong with making all heirloom tagged equipables equipable by everyone regardless of them being treasured, legendary or fabled? Especially when it's a reward for a live event.

I'd avoid all this headache and just pay the subscription except I'm not willing to pay a monthly fee when I have so much lag that I cant reliably group with anyone - and the blame does not lie solely with my internet connection and there isnt a thing wrong with my hardware.

And it isnt as if I'm not willing to pay for micro transactions. I gave EA around $300 of my money last month for The Sims 3, the expansions, some add ons and store content. They let me pick and choose what I want in my game and if they're good at anything it's getting money out of players even if they suck at fixing their games. Nope, I'm willing to pay for micro transactions, just not under the model you have in place.

I dont mind having to purchase extra character slots to unlock my remaining characters or to make new ones. I'm willing to unlock fabled, legendary, mythical and Master tiers but not on an item by item or art by art basis. If you wont do it as a one time fee per character - which I know you wont - then do by tier. Level 1 - 20 should be free, 21-40 an unlock then 41-60 after that do it by individual tiers - 61-70, 71-80, 81-90, 91+. Hey guess what? I can unlock my gear that way without it being in my inventory and I can just put it all back on with no hassle!

I think any class should be playable up to level 20 or 30 for free so people can get a feel for the class and decide if they actually want to pay for it.

Limit bronze accounts to purchase only on broker by default with broker slots purchasable per character, silver accounts can buy and sell with 3 broker slots by default and the rest purchasable per character. Convert tokens people purchased to broker slot unlocks, unusable tokens (because they've unlocked all broker slots) could be usable by another character on the same account.

Shared bank slots should be 2 but no less than 1 for bronze accounts, no less than 3 for silver and again make the rest purchasable...

Bank slots themselves - I dont know how many bronze accounts have access to but silver accounts only have 3, increase that and then make the rest purchasable.

Character bag slot system is fine as it is since we can already purchase additional slots.

Bronze account players of level 90 should be able to have more than 4.5pp.... some items sell to merchants for more than that and master crafted could easily go for a lot more on the broker. Minimum of a 50pp cap for bronze no less than 100pp for silver and yeah we should be able to remove the cap with a fee per character.

I dont see the point in limiting the quest journal on bronze and silver accounts. But if you must, raise the cap for bronze to 40 and make 75 a perk of upgrading to silver.

See all that potential money there SOE?

Let us decide what's important to us to have and tailor the features we use to our needs. Then I'll come back and I'll be more than happy to spread the word to people I know who game.

10-06-2012, 12:28 AM	#159
StargateFanGirl Loremaster Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 83	Do you really want to know what it would take to get me to return under your FTP model? Okay, but let me tell you about the player that you lost. I've been playing SOE's games since Novemberr of '99 when I began playing EverQuest, I progressed to SWG (how I miss you!) when it came out and played that off and on individually or under a station players sub and when EQ2 went beta I was there and when it went live I was there as well - and have continued to be with few exceptions when my finances just didnt allow it. So I stepped back into the game about a week or so ago after canceling my sub since I think around March - I canceled my sub for 2 reasons the first was that I now have a satelite internet connection (no other option besides dial-up) and I get noticably more lag now than I did when we had cable at our old house in MMO's (it's also the reason I quit SWTOR - lag was even worse there - rubberbanding for the win) and the second one was that I was so angry over the shoddy way the whole transition with FTP was handled and then that joke you guys called an expansion I just didnt care enough anymore to deal with the lag and find a way to make the game playable - which I could have by turning down the graphics. By the way, that was the first time I have not purchased a collector's edition/special edition when it was available, I've always been willing to pay a little more for the extra's starting with the original CE, but the basic expansion "content" the dev team put into AoD wasn't worth paying $80+ for a few fringe benefits, I still cant believe I gave you guys $ for the normal version. I've always been one of the people who said it wont be as bad as you think it will whenever SOE changed something or started something new, I said just wait and see and usually it wasn't anything horrible and typically turned out just fine. Well this time I was wrong. So, I stepped back into the world of EQ2 the other day, wanting to see if after a few months or so SOE had worked the kinks out of the new system. NOPE! I think it may actually have gotten worse. My level 90 swashbuckler who was equiped entirely in Legendary and Fabled and my Mythical - everything minus my master crafted ranged weapon and my ammo bag were completely stripped from my character and my inventory was overflowing. And is still overflowing because I have no where to put any of that gear - not even in my bank or house vault (which is full of holiday house items, clothing etc :p ) and since most of my armor pieces are no-trade I cant stick them in one of my broker bags either (are they still atuned? I dunno). So even if I were willing to pay for equipment unlockers to unlock every single one of those items - which I'm not and then the upgrades that I know I'd get just from completing quest lines. I'm going to guess that they probably cant be unlocked unless they're actually in my inventory. While I'm grateful that you grandfathered my existing race/class characters (my Woodelf Monk, my Dark Elf Bruiser and my Half Elf Paladin and probably the other 3 that are locked due to the character cap as well) and am sure that does not hold true for any new characters I might try to make, you've made it pretty much impossible for me to do anything with my main character and I feel this model is overly restrictive and extremely limited in it's expandability. I can do just fine with MC armor and arts on my alts, I dont really start investing in higher tiered armor until around 60 anyway and my next highest character is 32. But you know, when you guys were talking about this FTP system, ya'll made it sound like everything would be unlockable, levels, classes, races, spells/CA's, tradeskills, equipment, bank slots, inventory slots, broker, plat cap, mail, chat, everything. There are 8 shared bank slots and silver accounts get only 2 to use and the rest cant be unlocked, there are 12 bank slots and silver accounts are limited to 3 with no unlocks. Plat is capped with no unlocks I'm not allowed to have more than 18pp on my level 90? I have more than that waiting for me to pick up on the broker alone and limiting bronze accounts to 5gp per level is just moronic. Silver accounts can recieve mail but not send it? Why? and it again can't be unlocked. Can't unlock my quest cap either. I'm a quest hound, it's not unusual for me to have a full journal. I can't equip any of the heirloom legendary or fabled items I got from in-game holiday events on any of my characters either. What's wrong with making all heirloom tagged equipables equipable by everyone regardless of them being treasured, legendary or fabled? Especially when it's a reward for a live event. I'd avoid all this headache and just pay the subscription except I'm not willing to pay a monthly fee when I have so much lag that I cant reliably group with anyone - and the blame does not lie solely with my internet connection and there isnt a thing wrong with my hardware. And it isnt as if I'm not willing to pay for micro transactions. I gave EA around $300 of my money last month for The Sims 3, the expansions, some add ons and store content. They let me pick and choose what I want in my game and if they're good at anything it's getting money out of players even if they suck at fixing their games. Nope, I'm willing to pay for micro transactions, just not under the model you have in place. I dont mind having to purchase extra character slots to unlock my remaining characters or to make new ones. I'm willing to unlock fabled, legendary, mythical and Master tiers but not on an item by item or art by art basis. If you wont do it as a one time fee per character - which I know you wont - then do by tier. Level 1 - 20 should be free, 21-40 an unlock then 41-60 after that do it by individual tiers - 61-70, 71-80, 81-90, 91+. Hey guess what? I can unlock my gear that way without it being in my inventory and I can just put it all back on with no hassle! I think any class should be playable up to level 20 or 30 for free so people can get a feel for the class and decide if they actually want to pay for it. Limit bronze accounts to purchase only on broker by default with broker slots purchasable per character, silver accounts can buy and sell with 3 broker slots by default and the rest purchasable per character. Convert tokens people purchased to broker slot unlocks, unusable tokens (because they've unlocked all broker slots) could be usable by another character on the same account. Shared bank slots should be 2 but no less than 1 for bronze accounts, no less than 3 for silver and again make the rest purchasable... Bank slots themselves - I dont know how many bronze accounts have access to but silver accounts only have 3, increase that and then make the rest purchasable. Character bag slot system is fine as it is since we can already purchase additional slots. Bronze account players of level 90 should be able to have more than 4.5pp.... some items sell to merchants for more than that and master crafted could easily go for a lot more on the broker. Minimum of a 50pp cap for bronze no less than 100pp for silver and yeah we should be able to remove the cap with a fee per character. I dont see the point in limiting the quest journal on bronze and silver accounts. But if you must, raise the cap for bronze to 40 and make 75 a perk of upgrading to silver. See all that potential money there SOE? Let us decide what's important to us to have and tailor the features we use to our needs. Then I'll come back and I'll be more than happy to spread the word to people I know who game.