Solid Gold Easy Action

Something I read in the patch notes for yesterday's EverQuest II update got me wondering. I don't remember any previous expansion labeling an instance in the Signature questline as anything other than "Solo" so I found the following a tad confusing:

"With their early involvement in the Signature quest, the following zones have been relabeled from [Solo] to [Signature], and no longer apply Oppressive Sands:

• Raj'Dur Plateaus: Blood and Sand
• Raj'Dur Plateaus: The Sultan's Dagger
• Buried Takish'Hiz: Terrene Threshold
• Buried Takish'Hiz: The Sacred Gift"

I infer from the mention of "Oppressive Sands" no longer being in effect that this change relates in some way to difficulty. Presumably the intent is to make the four instances easier. I didn't know what "Oppressive Sands" was until I did a bit of digging but from the name it's obviously some kind of debuff, so taking it away has to be beneficial. 

Other than that, I guess we're meant to assume that something labelled "Signature" is inherently less challenging than something labelled "Solo"? Does that track? I'm not sure it does.

The notes also mention that something has been added to Tishan's Lockbox, the stash of free catch-up gear you get with every expansion, nowadays:

"The Jubilant Familiar Infusion, Monolithic Mercenary Infusion, and Tolan's Darkwood Mount Infusion are now free from Tishan's Lockbox."

Since buffs from familiars and mounts are hugely important to player power these days and since solo players rely heavily on mercenaries, these changes once again imply a leg-up for those already struggling with the entry-level content in Renewal of Ro.

Finally, there was this:

"Removed the lore tag from many of Tishan's lockbox white adornments."

That's primarily a bug fix but it means players can now equip extra, free adornments, which is another increase in power. Taken all together. it's hard to avoid the conclusion that someone feels the new content is overtuned and needs toning down.

It wouldn't be the first time, only for once my experience has been very much the opposite. So far, I've had no significant difficulty with any of the content in the new expansion, either overland or in instances. I'm currently some way through the third instance, Buried Takish`Hiz: Terrene Threshold, having killed the first two bosses before I had to stop for lunch.

Yesterday I finished the whole of the second instance, Raj'Dur Plateaus: The Sultan's Dagger without a hitch and a few days ago I ran Raj'Dur Plateaus: Blood and Sand, which also gave me no trouble. Of course, only that last one did I do before the patch, so it's impossible for me to tell if the later instances would have given me pause without the notified nerf but the first one, which is included in the change list, I did before the patch... so make of that what you will.

Whatever, the tl:dr is that so far all the instances have been very straightforward. Several of the bosses have had some kind of script with special attacks at various points in the battle but I've just ignored them and carried on tanking and spanking with no obvious problems. Twice, my mercenary died, leaving me without outside healing and cures but still I prevailed. As yet, I haven't died once.

It probably helps that quite a few of the bosses seem to think calling for assistance is their best option. That might work on some classes but my Berserker actually thrives on chaotic battles with large numbers of opponents, thanks to the number of abilities we get that are designed for exactly that situation. The more the merrier might be his motto. Or his battlecry.

More importantly, the expansion so far has been gloriously free of those infuriating developer's fall-backs of recent years, massive power drain and invulnerability. It makes things so much more enjoyable when you can rely on your massive power pool and regenerative abilities to keep up your relentless barrage of attacks and when the mob you're fighting doesn't magically switch off all damage every couple of minutes, forcing you to go break something or click a switch somewhere, just so you can get back to the scheduled mindless violence.

Well, it makes it much more enjoyable for me, anyway. I appreciate there may be other opinions. I'm just happy it's my preferred playstyle that's getting the love for once. I'm sure it won't be for long.

In the expectation of things getting tougher ahead, I took time out from hacking and slashing to get my Alchemist working on Combat Art upgrades. I didn't play my Berserker much in Visions of Vetrovia, the previous expansion, other than to get him up to the level cap. Consequently, almost his abilities between Levels 121 and 125 were the lowest quality grade available, the free "Apprentice" versions you get automatically, when you ding.

That sounds bad but in fact he wasn't really using any of them. He had the Expert or better versions from the expansion before that, when he was favored character on the account. EQII's spell progression means that higher quality versions of lower level spells are generally better than their lower quality, higher level equivalents, at least until you leapfrog more than one level-cap cycle. 

Indeed, because I've been fairly dilligent in utilizing the free, time-gated upgrade system, some of the Berserker's favored attacks are now so far upgraded it's going to take a couple more expansions before even the crafted Expert replacements take over. It's just one example of the ferociously complex, nested, sometimes contradictory network of interlocking progression mechanics that make kitting a character out for current content in EQII such a daunting prospect.

For the moment, I feel like I'm on top of things. I'm playing a character whose armor and abilities are there or thereabouts par for the new course. I realise that most players will be breezing through fights that take me some concentration and effort but I'm winning, not losing, and that's really all that matters. 

Better yet, it's not taking me too long. None of those attritional twenty minute boss fights, so frustratingly common a few years ago. Everything seems much better-judged towards helping the solo player to have fun, which I am.

That's good because the story this time is really interesting. There's a lot of lore and flavor text and I'm reading every word with relish. One stage of a quest today asked me to read a book, which turned out to be twenty pages long, huge by in-game standards. I could just have flipped the pages to get quest credit but I read the whole thing with increasing fascination. I've always found the legend of Takis'Hiz curious and compelling so I'm happy to learn more about the history behind it.

I'm also always glad to meet old friends so it was a pleasure to re-acquaint myself with Firiona Vie. She and my Berserker have met many times before and I was delighted to find she remembered him and their greatest adventure together, the Battle of Ages End. Granted, I didn't play my part until several years after the original raid but who's counting?

Redbeard at Parallel Context was talking about power creep in (mmo)rpgs and how characters who once struggled to protect a farm from bandits can end up fighting Gods and winning. It's the kind of thing that used to worry me, too, although not so much these days. 

My change of heart is mostly due to the successful efforts of writers at ArenaNet and Daybreak in contextualizing these changes, acknowledging the events that brought them about and integrating that history into an ongoing narrative. Sometimes it's done awkwardly but the fact that it's done at all helps a lot. 

When it's done well, as it very much has been in the Renewal of Ro storyline so far, it creates a warm, pleasurable sense of belonging, something like walking down the main street of your home town and passing the time of day with people you know, at least by sight or reputation.

Whether the writers can keep it up for the whole of the expansion remains to be seen. At least, given the foundation laid by both the writers and designers, I can say I'm looking forward to finding out.

I Win EverQuest!

I thought I was going up in the world when the Avatars of Brell and Tunare agreed to join my team.

But then I recruited Firiona Vie...

I guess we won't be doing Seasons. Where would we go after this?

A Casual Affair : EverQuest

When Daybreak announced a few weeks ago that they were planning a "casual" progression server for EverQuest's twentieth birthday I got quite excited. I've been playing EQ, on and off, for the whole of those twenty years but it's been a long time since I last had a character at the level cap.

Building on yesterday's theme of expansions, there are few things that change the playing field so much as an increase in the Level Cap. If you came to MMORPGs via  World of Warcraft, as so many did, you might well believe that an increase in levels is a given when a new expansion drops. With the exception of Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, which each added just five, WoW expansions come with ten levels included.

Had EverQuest followed that pattern, the level cap in old Norrath would now be somewhere close to three hundred. Despite being five years older and having released more than three times as many expansions, it's actually lower than WoW's. Battle for Azeroth took the cap to 120. EQ's last level increase, coming with the Ring of Scale expansion in 2017, went to 110.

Looking at the list of cap increases on Wikipedia, Sony Online Entertainment was surprisingly conservative from the start, especially when you consider that in those early days leveling up your character was the beating heart of the game. There were fifty levels at launch.That jumped to sixty with the first expansion, Ruins of Kunark, then held steady for two and a half years, two more expansions, until Planes of Power arrived in late 2002, bringing an increase of just five levels, making 65 in all.

That set the pattern for a while. There were four more expansions before Omens of War moved the bar to 70. Although no-one knew it at the time, that wasn't how it was supposed to go: one of the reasons the preceding expansion, Gates of Discord, was such a disaster was that the content had been tuned in the expectation that everyone would be Level 70 when they got past the opening zones. Someone forgot to put the extra five levels in the box.

My original Firiona Vie ranger, born Oct 9 2001.

EQ's endgame sat at Level 70 for four more expansions, until the semi-reboot of 2006's The Serpent's Spine took it to 75. At that point something changed. The next three expansions arrived with five levels apiece and since then it's been a comparative sprint to 110.

Raising the cap brings a lot of problems for any MMORPG still looking to attract new players or bring prodigals back into the fold. That's how we ended up with Heroic Characters and expansions that come with a Level Boost as part of the deal.

For some reason that I can't quite fathom, while Daybreak has been perfectly happy for EQ2 to put max level boosts in the imaginary box and hand out free gear to bring anyone and everyone up to the required starting spec, they don't offer anything similar for the elder game. The best you can do in EverQuest is to pay $35 for a "Heroic Character", which takes you to the giddy heights of Level 85, twenty-five levels below the cap.

There's a seven page thread about this on the forums, in which even the hardcore veterans, usually so dismissive of anything that smacks of EZMode, generally agree that 85 is ridiculous and should be raised, probably to either 100 or 105. As someone comments on the final page of the thread, though, "7 pages and not one word from a DBG person. I guess we know how seriously they take this request."

This is where I was hoping the upcoming "Casual" server would save us. I imagined a ruleset with accelerated XP, faster than currently available on Live, and very possibly a bunch of other adjustments to make leveling quicker and easier, such as more frequent spawns and faster travel. The current plan is very much not that.

It seems that both Daybreak's and the current playerbase's idea of "casual" is radically different from mine. DBG have interpreted it as involving slower xp than a regular Live server, although faster than the slowed-down Progression servers. About the only other difference from Live is the sequential unlocking of expansions at one a month. Since the plan is to open the server at Shadows of Luclin, the third expansion, that would bring the "Casual" server, Selos, to parity with Live in just two years.

The reaction to this has been vitriolic. Almost no-one likes it. The other new Progression server, the supposedly Hardcore Mangler, which has even slower xp and longer unlocks, is being seen as more casual because apparently "casual" means "very, very slow" to a lot of people. Who knew? Selos, with its fast unlocks, is reckoned by many to be ideal for the Hardcore because it means more raids opening sooner.

Firiona Vie's Plane of Knowledge: pop. "too many to count"

DBG have gone away to think about this for a while, acknowledging that they may have misjudged their audience. They are getting a lot better at doing that these days (aknowledging their mistakes, that is - they were always good at making them).

I took the trouble to post my own thoughts about what I would want from a "casual" server but I think I'm shouting into a bucket. There will be an announcement later this week to say what, if anything, they are going to change but I don't anticipate getting the faster xp and easier conditions I was hoping for. I think Selos is out.

I would still like to get a character closer to the cap without having to go uphill in the snow both ways to do it. And there are options.

The Test server has always had permanent double XP running. I even have characters there, although not on the All Access account. I could make a Heroic Character there and start at 85 with decent gear but there are enough disadvantages to playing on Test to offset that somewhat.

Not quite capped. You can have 500 traders. Pretty darn close though.

Test comes with extra resets and brand new bugs as it does what it's there to do - test content. There's no economy so you can't buy anything in The Bazaar, something I rely on for gearing up. What's more, if I ever did hit the cap and wanted to do some actual grouping, that's not going to happen: Test has a population in the single figures during my normal play hours.

There's one more possibility and it's something I hadn't even considered until I started fact-checking for this post. The "role-playing" server, Firiona Vie, has apparently had a permanent 50% xp boost running since 2010. No wonder it almost always shows "High" on the Server Status page!

I do, in fact, have a character on Firiona Vie, although once again it's not on my current paid account. Mrs Bhagpuss and I started characters there back when the server launched, when it did, briefly, have an actual roleplaying ruleset, including the hilarious mechanic that made everyone speak only in their own racial language until they could get someone to teach them the Common tongue.

Whether it's worth starting over, even from level 85, just to get a 50% leveling boost I'm not sure. It might be. I think I might at least go over to FV and have a wander around to get a feel for the place. I hear it's... different.

Much better would be if DBG would decide to bundle a Level 100 or 110 Boost with the next expansion, assuming there is one. I'd get my wallet out for that.