EZ Server

Drake is Fixed, EXP / SoA are...not so fixed.


Drake is fixed. With the implementation of the not_extendable/not_focusable field (correctly), spells can be set to NOT scale, which is a pretty huge win from a dev standpoint. Drake's triggers were set to scale and the hotfix command was issued (thanks KLS for that!). Should be live, but may require clients to zone to "see" the benefits.

Shield of the Ages is, for the most part, fine. With a lot of the recent spell updates, the Ancient Enhancement is all kinds of broken. It adds a TINY bonus to damage...EXCEPT IT DOESN'T ADD TINY AMOUNTS. Rank 6 or 7 lists 6 or 7%, but is adding somewhere close to 22% damage increase. As a result, until the effect can be fixed or until I find a better use of that focus slot, I will have to remove the effect. I may replace it with a more dynamic effect that is more defensive in nature, but that is a discussion for later. (It will be discussed unless no one cares...then I'll just fix it.)

Finally, the experience bonuses are ...breaking things. I've tried to ignore it for as long as I could, but it is causing lots of issues (negative exp values, getting 1-69s stuck, awarding so much AAXP that RoA100 is now obtainable in a week or less). This being said, I've been number crunching for a few hours to find the right "max". I do not have a value that is good yet, but I'll post here when I do and scale down the exp buffs. I hate to do what looks like a huge nerf, but I simply cannot have players earning millions of AAXP in a week or so. I will upgrade the EXP mask in status or other bonuses to ensure it stays valuable and well worth the effort spent to obtain it.


-Hate

Also, PLEASE share thoughts/experiences/concerns with anything above. I can't keep EZ as one of the best custom Everquest servers without feedback.


-Hate

im just worried about the exp reward item V3. it has allready seen changes. i spent 1k cred on it and now it costs... 750? if it gets nerfed in exp bonus to...

If low levels are having problems is it possible to set it so anyone below 70 has a max exp bonus of say 150%? I mean 1-70 takes no time at all anyhow.

change away:) As long as its for the health of the game I don't think reasonable people will get upset.

a few things... the amount of xp it takes to get Mask to 400 or 600 or 1000 is so much that you literally don't need any more aa's by the time you get to that... so the only purpose of this mask is to farm up new toons or MGB it out for other people..

that being said lf you determine that the mask should be capped at 500 this only effects a few people  like 1 really..maybe 2? small handful at best and really wont effect anything in game.

I'd say the mask rank I was at when my Warrior finished needing AA's was somewhere around 350. But he started his AA grind long before xp penalties were removed from the server and the mask was introduced. I spent countless hours solo'ing Anguish on him with the 250% self xp clicky long ago, to the point where he was over 1 million AA's ahead of the team. So, with that in mind, I could see new groups (doing Mask of Exp on a box instead of warrior) hitting mask 300 or so at the same time they finish RoA 1000's on the bulk of the team (assuming we all take part in the Rymo has buffed TIME TO DO SOME ANGUISH program at least a few times). When I grinded my Earring (1 mil AA's) I was knocking out 100k AA in a day with a Rymo buff thrown in the middle somewhere. Waraesh can probably touch on this subject too, as he just finished grinding his Ear like a madman as well.

Don't worry, even if I end up adjusting those, they will still be VERY strong and VERY worth the effort. :-)

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Fixes one minor problem. Still doesn't address the 100k+ per day currently possible.

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Heh the UW change was for the health of the game and look how that ended up? :-)

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Realistically, I'm looking at an absolute max value of somewhere closer to 350%.





-Hate

Even so thats at most a dozen players? So long as the item still gives them something for the effort they put into it past that cutoff they should understand.

On a side note, I think you are going to break Rymos heart. He was shooting for server first to 1000.

Another possible fix for this could be disabling Quest experience from scaling, if that's even possible. The only players that use these are the ones brand new to the server, leveling for the first time. When we level new characters, it's as fast as: Create level 1, buff him, zone to Karnor's and autorun for 60 seconds, repop instance, autorun some more, zone to PoFire, do 1 pull and bam done.

Not saying the masks aren't breaking the server, just offering another precautionary thing to stop the new guys from getting bugged.  8)

The Focus effect from Shield focus had never worked before. One of the recent updates just kicked it on and made me go HOLY SHIT. But yeah, it probably always had this insane scaling effect, it just never worked before, kinda like the magic restriction on our favorite buff  :P

The effect is supposed to give 7% damage bonus (additive) for Ancient Enhancement VII, but it's giving ~22%. Somewhere, math went "dude wut?" and the damage bonus went through the ceiling.


-Hate

Yeah I know, I was just pointing out that it has always given 0% damage before yesterday lol. So disabling it isn't going to make anybody mad because it never worked in the first place.  ;)

If you change the exp mask and those people who will basically have it maxed out and nothing to spend their AAs on. Would it be possible to add an AA item to the power source slot that way people have a reason to keep farming AA. The item can increase your base stats like AC or something that would replace the huge lose of some peoples exp masks. It is just a thought I was thinking of for the past few days.

Hate will probably have a better worded answer for this, but the reason for changing the Mask would be to add another AA quest / item to attain. But anything he adds with the Masks in their current state are going to have players maxing out the item in a matter of weeks. Unless the line required something as absurd as 50 million AAs, but then it wouldn't even be something people couldn't really take advantage of. It's a hard call.

Yeah, could also make it like the earring where you have to find a incredibly rare item that only drops in T10 that would slow it down

True, but that is why the Earring is not a fix for dumping AA's which was the purpose of RoA. Some of us have boxes with a tonnnnn of AA's at the moment and nothing to do. Even if I fealt like buying them all GSoA's they would be attaining AA's too fast to spend it all (not to mention the Earring is a complete waste on non ult-weapon characters) , unless I just turned on a bunch of Bilbo Mcbotsalot characters and sat them in qvic all day. The bottleneck on the Earring is good for keeping the item rare, but it is in no way an AA-dump for your team.

Another thought that would be pure evil is the new item at the first level just takes away all of the saved AAs making it so everyone kind of starts out the same.... not sure how it would work. But, that would probably piss a lot of people off. Then again a lot of people probably have 100s of AA crystals saved in the bank.

If banked AA's are the issue, wouldn't having an AA vender to sell items help with that?  i.e. GSoA, SoI, SLS, spells. list could go on.

As far as RoA 1k in week ... not sure that the majority have the hours per day to achieve that even with a v3. And if they do, so be it ... they have no life then :)

I'd buy GSoA for 250k AA's if I could, hehe

Yeah, Right? I would go for 500k :)

I have an XP mask of 305% currently...

I dont think you can do a ROA 1k in a week... hell mine is only 650...


True I dont just sit in t5 and farm aa's but I have 20 some toons with a UC2 so it is not like I haven't spent some time in the zone....

Also he said RoA 100, not 1k. I think he was referring to the new players on the server basically being handed RoA 100 instantly, when it used to be an "omg" item to attain before it was changed to being AA-based. But yeah, with all the AA bumps to early-access zones combined with MGB xp buffs from Nexus, new teams are being carried heavily by having huge RoA ranks before even getting to Ult Charm territory.

LOL my bad ... thought he said 1k ... Move on :)

So make the mask not cast in nexus or something.

I thought the same thing. Then I thought well then they will just do it in stone hive or somewhere else. Maybe make the mask a group cast only like it is and remove the ability of having it be MGBed

whoa...whoa.... lets not take the mgb out of it. Most of the fun in the mask is being able to help others every hr with buffs.

As Kruciel and co. pointed out, its pretty pointless beyond 350% to the person making the mask. I'd have zero qualms with a cap put in.

But let Rymo keep his, that mask is a thing of glory lol. He's earned the right to troll no-good questing n00bs.

Even if I did this and restricted to group only, still stands that the amount of AAXP possible is downright ludicrous.


-Hate

This

Or have any MGB be automatically capped at 100%. Helpful, but not game breaking.

That fixes absolutely nothing, other than pissing people off that play 2 or more groups. The issue at hand is: Hate wants to add another RoA type item to the server to let players spend AA's and level something. But with so many masks above 350, people would be able to max the whole item out in a matter of weeks, without even doing some "hard t6 grinding". After I finished my warrior's ear, I played around with it for a while and killed a ton of stuff. But after that, I got burnt out and have barely done any "hardcore farming", haven't stepped foot in Anguish, and my boxes have earned over 1 mil AA's each. Mainly this came from doing Dranik / Bloodmoon (amazing xp) and a little bit of ToV (which is awful XP even with 800% mask) and T9 (which is so-so xp)

Actually building up an aa power source would be a pretty good way to give people aas to spend. Just add items in higher tiers that get the bonuses from power sources (Power source has been in game for a LOOOOONG time) so that this is another part of building up your characters.
This could also be turned into some kind of Ultimate Power Source where you make a super time consuming quest combined with having to collect GSoA, 100 essences, and possibly the SoT stone (can't remember the name) for each rank ontop of needing like 1mil-2mil aas per rank. have it add to heroic stats and hp/mana on every piece of gear.

My first thought on the matter, was to just make a Quest line with a very very absurd price that acted as an AA vacuum. For instance, a Belt of Awesomeness that has 1000 Ranks, but leveled even slower than the Mask, and didn't have super OP stats like the Ring. Make it hard enough to where nobody feels the need to sit in a zone grinding to skill it up. Say it catches up with T10 around the 20 mil mark, and has 2.5 x the stats of a t10 Belt by the time you're done (years and years later, even for Rymo) Additionally, this could be done for the Ring, just adding more ranks and having huge AA requirements.

That was my first thought, at least. As long as the new item isn't super OP and as long as the road to finishing it seems impossible as RoA 1000 once did, I don't see the problem with the Exp masks personally. That's just how I feel on the matter. I don't care about having a new flashy item, just wanted somewhere to deposit AA's before they roll over to 0  ;D Some other servers have a way of exchanging AA's for a sellable AA item. It would be similar to turning 200k AAs into a 10k AA crystal. I don't really like the thought of that, but it's an option on the table. I'd much rather  have it be something like Fuzzy said, spend a massive amount of AA's on GSoA, 500k sounds fair. But the downside of that would be similar to the Dranik / Bloodmoon SLS convention (i.e. players who do those every day with 2-3 groups worth of characters are earning enough SLS to craft things for the entire server) Difference being, SLS was a terribly designed bottleneck required for every crafted item on the server and I'm glad it's gone, whereas GSoA is a bottleneck for an extremely rare item, so it might not be a good idea to screw with it and make it easier to obtain.

The way I see it is:

Option 1: Make the next "Ages" quest seem endless compared to the Mask, 50 mil AA required to finish and do whatever with the stats I don't care if it's barely better than tier.
Option 2: Nuke the piss out of Exp Masks above 300, business as usual. People would just grind Anguish to complete the next Ages item even with a Mask reduction, unless the total AAs required were massive, as said in Option 1.

People can add to this if they think of anything else to fit in. Personally, I support Option 1 more than nuking the masks. Not because I have a high mask. Without any bias in the matter, I simply would enjoy just dumping my AA's into something, even if it's for an item that takes foreverrrr to become useable. If the price is high enough, people will not feel obligated to grind AA's to speed thru the item as they do now for the earring, once they set their sights on making one. They do it because it's possible.

But at the same time, in the "big picture" view of the server. Not nuking the masks would end up becoming a problem again some day. Making a super duper expensive unobtainable AA item would just be a band-aid fix and the server as a whole would continue to drift out of balance over time, making the gap in-between players larger and larger. Honestly, I don't see a way of even coming close to fixing it without stepping on some toes. It's similar to the old "UW is a requirement for tanks" problem back when it doubled your HP and t8 mobs would rip a tank to shreds without one :P

Regardless of how the Masks end up, I'm mostly in favor of an unrestricted, no-dumbass-rare-item-bottleneck-so-your-boxes-cannot-spend-AAs type of quest. What the reward for that is, I don't know.

Sorry to derail the serious discussion, just curious how Drake is now?  If anyone has tested.

Drake is back to normal, scaling off Ult Charms.

I was looking at a cap of 350% and spanning that across the 1000 ranks. This basically equates to 0.35% bonus per rank. Every 10 ranks, have a new click rank that adds the proper exp (rank * 0.35 rounding up). Rank 10 would be 4% exp, Rank 20 would be 7%, etc etc. Each new rank would stick until the next "upgrade" (like the original four charms). Ranks 10-19 would be the 4%, ranks 20-29 would be the 7%, etc etc. This gives the mask value all the way up. At rank 300, it's 105% exp bonus. At rank 1000, it would be the full 350%.

As for the Easy Experience reward items, 100% per rank. This gives the mask a small advantage to being farmed up.

Lastly, the biggest benefit to getting this under control is allowing us (Akk/Love/I) to do double exp weekends. With the values now, we would actually COST most of you AAXP as it would roll over.

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The point of this is really to slow down the explosive AAXP gains. It makes it hard to add items without requiring the costs to be, as mentioned earlier, VERY VERY VERY high. EZ has a good many things that are just stupidly high (damage, hp, aaxp cost/rewards, etc). This is one of the few that is a no-fun adjustment. I've been putting it off, honestly hoping and expecting a failure at a certain point...but it never came. The newer source versions are so robust, my hope of getting this changed without a nerf failed.


-Hate

That was the "issue". It wasn't scaling at all. Scales now. :-D


-Hate

Will those with the exp reward be able to sell back for credit?

Sure. I'll refund full purchase price and retroactively strip any AAXP gained rewards proportionate to the reward. (i.e. 1k exp bonus from EEv3, which is 100x the AAs of normal players, so ...a pretty huge drop?)

This sounds like a dick move, but if you expect to get a full refund after using it for weeks/months/years...you are hilariously mistaken. If you recently bought it, fine. Either way, the Easy Experience items are still VERY much worth the effort given that they are extremely high bonuses.


-Hate

why not put a cap on lvls that can get the xp buff have to be 71 to get 100+ 72 to get 300+ etcs ... i agree that having a huge amount of aa req for next of ages item should be what happens. i think it should be rk 1-100 like roa get it close to t7 then make it like 100k per rank and a gsoa every 25 and 500k aa ranks up to 1k
make it worth the farm but a dread to get. then you can choose to dump in mask or new item (i hope wrist). where as many have not gotten much past 350% rymo has been at it for 6+ months and he still has tons more aa's to get even with his bonus. rymo's mask may break low lvl server but you can fix that by putting a lvl require to receive the buff.

Sadly, there isn't a way to do the bonus cap without some possibly lag-adding "features". Given the current source issue(s), more lag is not quite what we want. I understand Rymo has been rocking out like a monster and he will still be a good bit ahead of the rest even after a change.

As it stands, RoA and EoA cost will need to go up or EXP bonuses will need to go down. It's simply too high. I understand this seems sudden and out-of-the-blue, but this came with me more diligently checking logs and seeing some breaking 80k AAXP a day (without crystals and with ~500-600% exp bonuses). Once some get 750-1000% bonuses, it is going to be MUCH higher. :-(


-Hate

NO, NO, NO, NO
If this were done, there wouldn't even be a point to adding it in the first place. GSoA is already restricting boxes from spending AAs that are done with Rings.


You guys both know the answer to this. Why waste time asking? Ult Weapons were adjusted away from their absurd HP values to better balance the server. XP bonuses being adjusted would have the same effect. I've never had anything past the v1 exp clicky, but when my mask surpassed it I didn't say "Hey Hunter I can't use this anymore dawg, lemme get that 250 creds back plz". It comes down to this: Hate isn't going to add more AA item quests in a world where you can grind them start to finish in a month. And before someone says something absolutely retarded like "If you do that in a month you're some no-life nerd" Guess how long it would take a 78 Warrior using 1000% xp and UW X or XI to get RoA from level 1 to 1000 in Anguish right now? Go on guess.

About 50 hours played, that's it. You could MORE THANK LIKELY knock that out mega casually before this change even takes place if you're worried. The biggest thing separating the top players from the elite players isn't some no-life style grinding, but you're welcome to think that if it helps you feel better about yourself. It's efficiency. I almost have half of the essences to make another full UW 11 after making one less than a month ago. I haven't grinded worth a shit to get back to this spot. I've let the dailies fill my bags with essences, bought a few hoh tokens. All that's left is to grind the qvics / ct / abyss essences (takes what 20 hours played? Wow!) wait for double loot, and occasionally run thru tofs to try and get the essences I'm missing.

Now for the real kick in the nuts that is reality. What you gave was a DONATION. There have been changes to donation items in the past, albeit none as significant as this, but the non-donation version of the item would be getting the same exact reduction. You aren't some special snowflake getting your ball taken away. If they wanted to, Hate could delete all reward items tomorrow, Akka could just decide "fuck those EZ guys thinking they're entitled to this server" and just stop it from booting up every day. But they don't.

Yes, this may sound over-the-top severe, but I know me posting this isn't going to stop this fucking episode of Groundhog Day from repeating itself and spiraling into 5 pages of "FUCK YOU I PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THIS". But please, think for two seconds before you ask for a refund of a DONATION.

Time to play devil's advocate and argue from the other side of the bench, because I'm bored. Getting the occasional mgb from a high mask in Nexus isn't going to shoot people up to RoA 1k any time soon. Even with Rymo's 800% firing off once a day, the number of players EVEN CLOSE to finishing rings is still incredibly small. If the only worry of XP masks is breaking quest turnins for some noobs, disable quest XP because it doesn't make a difference anymore. If the other issue is top players maxing new items too fast, make the AA required incredibly insane and don't make the end-item some crazy OP shit like RoA 1000. Regardless of xp coming in fast or slow, the new "Ages" item is going to have to be a large step up in AA for either system. So saying people are going to attain it too quickly is not a valid argument if all you need to do is say "new item up, 50 mil AAs to finish, see you guys in 10 years"

Kruciel, in response to your devil's advocate block:

If I scale values to the cost of expecting 500% or higher bonuses, what happens when Rymo or other extreme high level mask owners quit logging in for a bit? The stagnation and gap left by their goodies will put a very, VERY visible dent in the AAXP-based progression. :-)


-Hate

you can't use the old level spell cap system they had in place around pop. limit the spell to only hit certain levels.

Change the recast to once per day.

Keep it silly simple.

Deadend

I'll have 17 more Masks at 230% from 0 within the hour if that happened. Next!  :P

Hate,
That's a bit of an extreme response to a reasonable question I think.
Look at it this way, you purchase a thing said to do xyz. Then that thing will no longer do what it was said to do when purchased. True you got the promised result for a certain period of time but that was with the expectation of that said result for the duration of ownership.
If you want to strip the AA's I got for having it, be my guest. I'd rather have the credits back. If you do, please calculate all the AA crystals I have used to level my ring and the amount of times I have died and forgot to rebuff it etc...

And to those saying you could grind out roa1k in 50 hours, I don't have a 1k exp and don't find mindless grinding in Anguish to be very rewarding. I don't have server numbers but I'd hazard a guess that those doing that are the exception not the rule. So what if you can get roa 100 easy, it's hardly game breaking.

Warbash,

You are wanting me to refund you the cost of an item, you got plenty of use of, at full price. My issue isn't that you aren't thrilled with the changes. I'm TOTALLY fine with discourse and discussion, but basically you're saying that because you made a donation to help keep this ship sailing, you are entitled to keeping an item(s) locked in time, regardless of how absurdly problematic it may be.

Potentially, we could compromise on this. Would you be interested if the Easy Experience items became a GROUP buff (not MGB friendly, I'm not that insane...) instead of a self only? I would have to attach a cooldown of sorts, but it could be group usable AND persist through death.

Thoughts?


-Hate

Hate i'm going to try and make this as simple as possible.

you really have 2 options here and they both aren't great.

1) you can go back and "fix" all the issue of a progression server by back dating and adjusting content to make new content harder (i don't only mean mask but like mit stacking etc)

2)you can find ways to adjust for the bull$h1t that is in place and try to work around it. As you can see a good number of us would rather see high number of aa's required for new "of ages" item.  This is because 1 we can farm the mask till we feel we have it at a point where it to move on to something else and then come back to it. 2) we have dumped so much time into it to not only see our work cut by 1/3 but now it's 3x as hard to get the numbers we were before.

I know there are maxed players me kru rymo etc that do play regularly and we skew your numbers, but lately i have to say i have seen a good uptick in the number of players that have started playing on this server. Seems as the economy is "starting" to pick back up and i would say at least 1-2 players seem to be starting every week. when is the last time we have seen this?  the problem with progression is it gets easier to back farm the farther along you get. make the new eoa item start in t10? make it high # of aa i think the eoa should have stayed at 50k a rank. i think you could utilize the new players and the direction that we are going instead of trying to revert back. I think 1000 rks of a new item would be great with a gsoa every 25 or 50... make the drop rates on gsoa higher in t9+
this would also increase the desire for uni poop.


all in all hate it is your choice it is your time... me and a lot of folks would rather see you put your time into new content.
 

Built 35 quest items, been mathing out quest turn ins, writing the quest dialogues, and been bull@#%@ing with a few people in game the whole time. I can make this change in under 5 minutes, I'm just checking back for discussion. Implying that my chatty activity here is cockblocking new content is a fairly incorrect. :-)

Additionally, you face another problem that no one seems to care about until it's too late. You can and will roll over AAs at one point. No one seems to care that at one point, you will simply lose you AAs. At this point, highly tempted to set costs to explosively high and watch the QQ train of "we can't do this without Easy EXP or Mask 100"...to which I'll laugh and say the same as I said for HG in T9 breaking Zerka, "oh well".

I don't want to be the guy that just lets the kid stick the fork in the light socket...but it seems that is what may need to happen.


-Hate

Bringing down the amount of exp per rank is going to hinder newer players more than existing ones, why not just set it so rank 350 is 350% but it caps there, and after that starts giving heroic stats. Say bring a rank 800 in line with T10 mask, 900 in line with a T11 and 1k in line with a T12. That gives people a reason to work it up on all their boxes, giving them a reason to dump aa's, but it wont be brokenly overpowered.

lol, we're definitely a fork-in-light-socket crowd.

It's just a matter of which band-aid to rip off. It's not going to be pleasant, but it does need to be done.

As WYD pointed out, an increase in need for rainbows would stimulate the economy a tad. So at least thats a small win.

I'd love to halve the masks and cap it at 250 or 300, but that doesnt address the problem.

Selfishly i'd love another ages or some AA type vendor for overflow. But i'd even laugh at myself if I suggested some sort of SLS or EON for AA type hive queen. Thats not happening.

As for Kruciel's earlier statement, i maxxed Kiwis at 1k ROA a week or two ago and his 'oh $#!+' emergency xp mask is already at 135%. It's pretty durn quick.

As far as the donation issues, I think a rough % of credit value to be determined by management would be more than fair for the recent xp purchases. Hell recent-purchase XP reward items has got to be a small enough number to be a case-by-case thing anyways.

 As an aside, I'd like to point out that people like Rymo and Harthek grinded their way up to obscene masks without the benefit of obscene masks, so if anyone deserves grandfather clauses of any type, it'd be the early mask raisers, who pumped in worlds more kills than later slackers like me lol.

oh and p.s. Double XP weekends would be like winning ten cents in the lottery. ;)

私の名前が何回か挙がっているので、コメントします。

Google翻訳を使って読んでみました。
Max 1000%から350%に？

マスククエストは、Hunter存命時に導入されたものでした。
確か、Hunterは言いました、”私はNexusでプレイヤーがEXP buffをMGBをする、または売買する事をイメージしている。”
Hunter死後、私はメイングループのキャラでRoA1000を達成し、Earringも５０になりました。

EXPマスクは、Hunterからの最後の挑戦状です。
私はこれを達成しようと思いました。
導入当初、私はRank1000まで何年かかるのかと思いました。
しかし現在すでにRank830。少しだけゴールが見えてきました。

Rank500を超えた頃、私はこのEXPボーナスは高すぎだと思いました。
(他のプレイヤーに対して、無償で)
MGBは１日に１回、もしくは２回で十分だろうと考えました。
そして、私はそうしてきました。しばしば０回の時もありました。

ですが、自分のキャラに対しては、それまでの時間と苦労に見合ったEXPボーナスです。
MGBを行う時、自分のキャラに対してのみ、830% buff(Rankと同じパーセンテージのボーナス)は可能でしょうか？
あるいは同じギルドメンバー。

----------------------------------------------------------------

Since my name has been raised several times, I will comment.

I tried to read by using the Google translation.
From Max 1000% to 350%?

Mask Quest, it was what was introduced at the time of Hunter alive.
Indeed, Hunter told, "I have the image of that player to the MGB the EXP buff, or buying and selling in the Nexus."
Hunter after death, I achieved a RoA1000 in the character of the main group, Earring now also 50.

EXP mask is the last challenge from Hunter.
I thought I'd achieve this.
Introduced initially, I I think many years take of up to Rank1000.
But now already Rank830. I have seen the goal a little bit.

When I was beyond the Rank500, I thought this EXP bonus that he too high.
(Relative to the other players, at no charge)
MGB I thought it would be enough once a day, or twice.
And, I've been so. There was often time of 0 times.

But, for my character, it is EXP bonus that is commensurate with the difficulty and the time until then.
When performing the MGB, only for his character, What possible 830% buff? (Rank same percentage as the bonus)
Or the same guild members.

Traslated by Google

78 Warrior Rymo
from Japan

As I sat here reading through posts.
A little thought my head did host.

Okay I already give up on making it all into a poem.

ANYWAY. How about you keep the 1000 ranks, first 100 ranks will give 1% per and then after that split 250% exp between the next 500 ranks, then for the last 400 ranks have it add 1 second duration every 2 ranks?

This way it caps out at 350% so it's not so high that it's breaking everything, the first 100% will go buy pretty quickly so it doesn't suck the entire way, and it's got a nice bonus on it after the first 600 ranks, could even still split the remaining 250% between the last 900 ranks (I just figured 500 was good since that meant 1% more every other rank).
This also gives the benefit of allowing people to rebuff it if you die with it on (Assuming you managed to live for the first hour).

Also, bringing down the rank is not going to hinder new players at all.  You can get up through all the tiers without needing the max to help your RoA out.  It just makes it easier and that's it.

Rank 800 over only me.
It is exceptional.
It does not matter even if you ignore my post.
I just only wrote my emotion.

Bran, you magnificent bastard..

I like the duration idea.

I think the only solution is to break VT again and make it affect ONLY my augs.



hope this helps







 ;D

This nerf only effects me, you little noobs.
So much work went into this, it's crazy.
I don't care what you do Hate, I ain't even mad.
I just wrote my feelings on the matter, do what you want to.

Translated Rymo for you guys since he is my friend  ;) and I speak Rymo <3

(http://ezserverwiki.com/images/c/cb/Rymo.jpg)

<3 Rymo - haiku master

LOL OMG

Hate i vote if you do change the Mask mechanics swing your nerf mallet that the mask is renamed for whom has grinded the most

"Rymos mask of experience"

But i do hope it isn't changed xx

Overall, was considering making the mask effect persist through death, some stats on mask, and likely something else to make it worth while.

At this point, piss on it. The next ?OA item will simply involve farming/grinding/etc without using AAXP. Let'em stack up, rollover, and be wasted. Since change is so heavily protested against, I'll leave it be and find a new way to timesink the next ___ of the Ages item.


-Hate

I think persisting through death would be a nice bonus/compromise.

Not sure the client allows this, but maybe have it be on a chance to cast the original amount, the other 99% of the time it casts the new one.

Maybe have the lottery buff last twice as long too.

I think unicorn poop has really driven the uptick in AA's serverwide, leaving it as is and having some crazy conversion into unicorn poop with a corresponding drop rate reduction in unicorn poop might solve the AA problem.

I also think the making reward item group would be amazing.

Renaming tiers of the mask based on server folks would also be cool.

Adding stats could make it worthwhile as well.

Or add a Rymo NPC that once per day/week/month whatever will do the original buff MGB in the nexus.

Even though the server is work, doesn't mean we can't have some fun solutions

Could you make the mask at what lvl you choose only be casted in a certain zone and flag that for only t9 and up to use?  If it is breaking the system change it, end of discussion about change.  Lets find some compromise for added goodies for the effort or change the aa amounts... Then add something different for the reward item to make it unique.. since most of those would be on the main warrior.

This is getting off topic of the real issue but it would be fun. Make it random like the Ancient Dragon. "An Experienced Rymo appears" Five min later he shouts to the nexus something like "Experience my emotions!" and casts a experience buff.

(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo39/Cruznolfart/Avatars/WTF/WTFwasthatcat_zps7853bd42.jpg)

I wonder how the mask wasn't game shaking at least from the get go, 1000% xp bonus is insanity.

Hate, for the good of the server, piss people off now, they'll get over it and everyone will be back to happy again.

Seriously, it makes no sense to let it continue on in it's current form if it's been determined that the item is over powered and causing issues for development moving forward.

On the other side though - at the late game, xp isn't THAT important, as the RoA has diminishing returns after a certain point. It's SUPER good early though. Perhaps a level cap? or something to the effect of:

1-70 max xp buff = x
71 max xp buff = x
...

Where Rymo's 700%xp buff would buff a level 50 character @ only the level limited amount, but would buff a T9 at the full amount.

IDK just a thought.

(http://i60.tinypic.com/2emz81g.jpg)

What if the buff was randomized for everyone but the caster, and potentially his group?

For example, the owner of the mask (and potentially his group)will always receive the maximum effect of the xp buff. For everyone else that the buff lands on, they receive a random do buff, something between 100% - the maximum effect, assuming the mask is above the 100%xp threshold.  

Anything under 100% could be randomized between 1% - the max buff for simplicity, or simply make it so that anything under 100% is self and/or group only. Once you reach 100% the mask is then mgb-able with anyone outside of your 6man group receiving a random amount of xp through the buff.

That would certainly slow down the xp gained for anyone that does not have the mask for themselves, but still leave the owner of the mask with the full benefit, it would even slow down people that box multiple groups as they'd have to decide who they want to recieve the full effect of the buff, the others would still gain an xp buff, but it would be random so there's a chance that they only recieve an 238% buff instead of an 830% buff.  While here's also the chance that they're lucky and recieve the full 830% still.

Not sure how feasible that would be from a coding standpoint, but it's another option that might be accepted by a larger majority or players (hopefully)?  Sent from my phone, will proof read and edit typos later :)

If this were true, nobody would care about losing their masks :P and also RoA may scale harder and harder sure, but the stats start scaling higher and higher, faster and faster (HP + HP Regen) Doesn't really change the fact that Hate can see how many AA's a team earns per hour or per day. The values he's seeing make the RoA look like a joke, but these are warriors with full gear that are biting and clawing to reach the end of the Earring line. Honestly, it's the design of the Earring that causes this, by having the effect doubled from 49 to 50. Once somebody reaches the halfway mark on their Ear, they enter a farming frenzy to finish it. This is the level of AA Hate is seeing being achieved: 80k AAs per day for just a few hours of grind.

Beating a dead horse into the ground: the extreme AA farming is only possible from farming Anguish. BUT, if things change with the masks, it's possible Hate could LARGELY raise the base AA awarded in zones like t7, t8, t9, t10 WITHOUT breaking the game. Currently, if he were to do this in a way that would allow AA to even come close to matching Anguish, you would earn negative AAs because the game can't handle it. This is one of the two big reasons the Mask is not going to fit in the end.

> Rank 800 over only me.

The meaning of "such a crazy guy at the moment's just me, so good to ignore."

Translated by Google.


hard to english...

Another thing to keep in perspective. There is a BIGGGGG difference between getting a high xp buff and going nuts for an hour vs owning a high xp buff and having it on your entire raid PERMANENTLY. What's life like after being done with both AA items currently you might ask? Well, I haven't touched Anguish, I haven't done mass killing of any kind for my team aside from Dranik / Bloodmoon every day, Tier 8 for about 10 hours, and Tier 9 for about 5 hours in the past month. In the very limited grinding I have done, I've already reached 900k AA's on my entire raid without so much as thinking about AA's. This is one of the things considered 'broken' about the mask. That's almost half of the entire RoA. There's no way I could buy enough GSoAs to contend with this and try to spend them, nor would I even try to.

I have an xp mask at 311 currently;


I have very little interest is farming a mask to 1000% now.... or ever...

It may happen but I don't care when or how...

We as a small group of people that play this game must be flexible in our thinking.

I would be extremely frustrated to see the mask at 300 rank only give an xp bonus of 100%

I do understand and accept that it must change.


So that leaves us with a few choices.. some of which suck...or all suck...their is sucking going on for sure..


1. we can not have a 1000%xp mask in game
2. we have an item in game currently that in a short time will be this
3. the longer we delay the more this is going to be a problem

if we can all agree on this being true then we can look at solutions.

1. remove the item
2. alter the item
3. do nothing


I think we can all agree that we  would as a group prefer either option 2 or option 3

alter the item;

1. mgb yes/no?
2. xp%+/-
3. stats +/-
4. quest requirements ??

1. should the item available with MGB? I personaly feel it should at whatever value HB settles on.
2. XP%   1000% is to much ...800% to much? I have heard 350% thrown around... if 350% is not game breaking then set it to max of 350%;
3. Should the mask have stats? I think yes
4. should we change the requirements to level the mask? be it gsoa, SLS, or sacrificing a gnome... I do not care on this one... add stuff or dont... its fine either way. We could ask essence... so mask 1-50 requires qvic, 51-100 requires ct, ect ect... or any breakdown like this.. adds cost....makes it harder for people to get when they start... I would hate to see GSOA added to anything I have managed to beg, borrow and steal a total of 22 of these stones in the last year.... only a handful of them looted by me.... At this point my great grandchildren will see a team with full 50 earrings. You could even add a quest as a level check like i dunno... However if you wanted to add the stone of impotence to the required items that would be fine...that shit only stacks to 10 and its taking up bag space I could be using for anguish essence...


whatever HB decides to do Rymo and his twinks buddies are going to have to lose the mask they currently hold.   and that sucks... sorry




so the TL;DR version  is!

Reduce mask bonus to 350% MAX and add some stats to make it wearable at all times (or make it an aug...) and look at adding some cost to the mask and changing the process we use to get it to level up.

suggested stats are HP/AC/DS/ATK/RESISTS

(http://i59.tinypic.com/zstmrp.png)


exp mask = power glove

That sounds like an amazing idea of having not drop after death and making max at 350% seems far and is plenty to still get decent amounts of AAs and aadding stats would make it worth having on all toons probably

Hate had suggested doing this, and that could indeed just make the Mask the next "Ages" item, while turning the tide of the massive xp buff at the same time. 22 million AA's is an astonishing feat at the moment, and nobody has even reached it. Kills 2 birds with 1 stone. Of course you'd have to Crafter Flag your characters, but that's nothing but running around PoK for a few hours. Currently, everyone I know that's done with Rings already has a handful of characters flagged from doing extra Ult Weapons. Just a thought  :o I think the main worry at the moment is people not wanting the Ring to take 3x longer. But like I said, Hate is backed into a corner on what he can do with xp at all, whether it's making a new AA-line or trying to make high tier zones actually give AA somewhat based on how much longer the kill-per-hour ratio is compared to lower tiers. If this opens up doors to raise AA in hard zones, and do double xp events, it's not going to take you triple the amount of time. Also, it stops sending people back to old zones just to do AAs, which is a big big big big big big turn on I think we all can agree on.

That is a totally reasonable compromise:) won't do me much good as mask is at %180 but totally fair.
Thanks for listening sir :)

Oooh!! Kind of off topic, but the perfect next "?oA" item!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfk-a1JZMbU

Cockrocket of the Ages!!

If you wanted to anger the least amount of people my suggestion would be to keep the current 1% per level scaling then cut it off at whatever value you think is reasonable.  Could add an additional effect for further levels.  That's just my 2cp though.

I be all like "Hate don't nerf me bro plz"

and he be all like

(http://img.memecdn.com/call-the-cops_o_670925.jpg)

tl;dr - I don't agree with the need for or ramifications of an exp change.

I haven't read the whole thread, just the first page, so if this has been addressed I apologize. I have a few comments on exp:

1.) How are people getting 100k aaxp per day? I only see one possibility - I have a v2 exp clickie and get maybe a few thousand per day at most. How is 6k in 3 hours of playtime a problem? To me it seems incredibly slow considering how many AA we need and since I paid 500 for the item. If I had a v3 clickie, and paid 1000 (back when it was 1000), and I played for 24 hours straight and I am able to get to 100k per day... that sounds reasonable to me - 24 hours is an insane dangerous-to-your-health type grind and the v3 clickie costs a fortune! Not everyone pulls all of Anguish all day every day for fun - I know I don't - plus most can't. As for the mask, no one has a mask 1000 for a reason, it's an impossible amount of AA to get. Rymo is close because he's a monster, and he should be rewarded for it - the buff only lasts 1 hour so it's fun for the server when he buffs on rare occasion. Additionally, you only get to mask 1000 years after you've beaten the game and maxed your aa, so it's more of a bragging right than anything useful.

2.) I can't say I am in favor of nerfing the most expensive items on the server (by far) in any way. I didn't get the item because I wanted to grind relatively faster than the server - I got it because I did the math in my head, and I felt at the specific level it was at, and the price it was at, it made the grind into something I considered somewhat sane to a casual player instead of impossible. All of the people who did the grind with the current AA system already have their AA. All this does is reward the haves even more, and punishes future players significantly - a familiar situation. How can you cap the exp rate without rolling back huge portions of AA people have already received? It creates a massive AA imbalance between new and old players.

3.) If this does go through. I would highly recommend you offer credit to those who purchased the v1, v2, or v3 exp clickies. If I paid 1000 and then found out about this I would be mega-pissed. I'm already super unhappy about it and I only went with the 500. Update - I see this was mentioned and Hate suggested removing all the AA gained after offering credits for credits... which was originally 1,000 real US dollars and clearly helped the server... a lot.  ???

Although I don't believe AA is even an issue since RoA doesn't really matter on alts, and mask doesn't matter either - here is an alternate solution: Do not cap exp. Add an uber belt that sucks up AA like no other.

Sorry to get all whiny about it I know you guys work so so hard, but I've given a lot to the server through EZC going all the way back and I even plan on giving more (with the old exp system I was going to buy an upgrade for v3 along with other stuff). EZ is fun and awesome that's why I've done so, but I can't say I'm on board with this exp change at all.  :(

TLDR: recap!  = AA's are a decent thing, but not essential to my fun!

I guess my greatest source of confusion is the big deal surrounding the exp masks.  I am puzzled as to why it is game breaking.  Yes, Rymo's buff is massive and when he casts it, people flock to the zone it's being cast in.  (this is kind of fun to me).  Then people go out and slog through 1 hr of super buffs to see how the other half live (or the other <1% for that matter).
I am relatively new to the server, less than 10months.  But not once have I ever thought to myself...damn this is rough, I need to upgrade my team's RoA's to progress.  It has always been about getting gear or resists.  The RoA is a nice shot in the arm for the tank, but for the rest...meh.  As people continue to increase in power and the exp masks that people have rise towards the heavens (to join rymo in his crystal palace) they are going to max out their RoA's.  At which point they will start grinding towards Earrings, secondary masks (for that lag wipe on first pull of t9.   >:() or they are just going to let aa's become ancillary and play the game.
I'm a grinder and I love progress, I like to see the %'s go up on my mask as I continue to mash through things.  With hate adding the text to level up wench to fix the negative exp for lowbies at 69, I think this is all but handled.  I just wanted to weigh in, please take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I said...I'm new to the community and just happy to be here with the wonderful folks and the great dev's.  <----Seriously who else do you know that works this hard for nothing other than helping out an old friend's family, much respect!

I dont really have a dog in this fight, i dont give a shit about the xp mask I just *really* appreciate players giving out buffs (oak, VT, crab, etc), but I do have a solution:


First disable any new xp masks from being created.  Anyone that is possesion of the current xp mask will be grandfathered and allowed to keep their mask but the mask is limited to group only and non-MGB-able.
 
Second, create a brand new xp mask that functions as explained below.  Grandfathered users can turn in their old masks for an equivalent new mask if they so choose.

- The new mask is rank based, not percentage based.  This will allow the devs to set the actual XP percentage based off their judgement for the health of the server.  For example, instead of a Mask of Experience 360%, it would be a Mask of Experience Rank 360.  

- The click affect of the mask will spawn an npc just like the banker clicky.  ideally the npc wil be *very* tall so it can be interacted with by a large number of people, if such a model exists in the global file

- the npc will stay spawned for X minutes (5 or so)

- the name of the spawned pc will depend on who cast it, example:  Rymo's Rank 830 Experience Pet, or Kiwis Rank 330 Experience pet.  This will allow the caster to broadcast its existance and not have to wait around for everyone to show up.  They could say something like "/ooc %T pet up in nexus for 5 mins"

- the xp buff persists through death

- the mask clicky has a much longer cooldown.  One hour seems like a good start

- the xp buff's DURATION depends on what rank the mask is.  for example, a Rank 100 mask may last 15 mins, while the Rank 1000 lasts the full hour duration.  This gives incentive to keep increasing the mask to not only have a higher xp bonus but a longer duration.  

- the buff is tier based.  all of our toons are already flagged for each and every tier, so the buff could be customized to the person hailing the npc.  lower tiered people getting the buff have a higher percentage penalty.  We already have this functionality from the buff bot, it gives out buffs based on your level.

- pre level 70 would have the highest penalty.  since they have no tier flags at all, the buff could be penalized by 80%

- each consecutive tier flag would reduce the base penalty of the mask for the person hailing the spawned mask npc.  Example, a T5 flagged toon hailing the xp buff pc would only be penalized 30%, a T9 flagged toon by 5%, etc)

Why would you bother with such a long post if you can't be bothered to read all of the information in the thread? This sounds like something a politician would say "I didn't listen to anything you little people have to say, but listen up because here's what I think" durrrr


People are getting 100k by... nevermind I'm not going to repost what I covered already. 100k is possible right now, without 1000xp, without Rymo Mask, in about 5 hours with your average mask. Not many can pull and kill at that speed, but majority of max warriors can. The only reason to send them into AA overdrive is working on the earring. Warriors doing the ring are earning AA faster than me or Rymo, because we aren't actively hunting AAs at the moment (which means running Anguish)

People are entitled to opinions. Nobody wants to take a hit to xp, but the game is old and it has limits. One of the many reasons you don't get dick for xp outside of Anguish is because the game has reached its limit on what it can handle via xp scaling. The mobs gain around 600% HP moving up to Loping Plains, and even if they awarded 600% xp of Anguish mobs, you still have to run around for an hour after the trash playing an infuriating game of wack-a-mole with the bosses.

Let's stop right there. How many people actually threw down $1000 for the 1000% clicky. I have no idea how many are on the server, but I imagine the answer is 0. Ever since I started playing, Hunter had 2:1 credit options, 3:1 credit options, hell sometimes even 5:1 credit options. He used to award credits to people all the time for helping him test things or reported absolutely broken shit. Just off the top of my head I can say I got 600 from a 3:1 donation, 200 for an exploit I emailed him, and 90-100 ish for testing things over the years. ANNNNYWAYS, I've gotten ample use out of my v1 clicky over the years, when my Mask passed it I didn't care, I didn't feel cheated. v2 clicky and v3 clicky are a bit more extreme, but Hate already said he's willing to compromise IF it was a recent purchase. I'm really not going to go into this further, seriously just read the thread. Reasons are explained on why it has to happen, eventually, whether it's today or a year from now. Here's the reality of that: a year from now, people are going to be even more mad.

Again man, why make such a big big post if you aren't going to read. This is so stupid, formulating your point of view on a topic without even reading into why Hate wants to make the change.

Hate already gave up on nerfing the mask for now by the way, you guys can stop the QQ fest. But, in the interest of trying it again someday Hate when it actually does break the server in another year or so, you might have to explain more in depth what it's breaking, from a developer's point of view. Everyone arguing at the moment is missing the point completely on what you wanted to do with xp. They just see "NERF" and "33% XP" and fail to read the rest of the posts, or even try and figure out for themselves what you mean by "break the server" and "negative exp values" If we're going to have an actual discussion on this, we need some power-point type shit to explain to people "this is why I'm cutting your nuts off" and "these are all the ice cream flavors you can choose from afterwards"

I did read the thread after I posted which is why I added an update. It's a long thread, wanted to get my 2cp out while it was fresh. Also obviously don't agree with you.

Don't agree with what exactly? Me saying that eventually it's going to have to happen? That part isn't an opinion. From where Hate's sitting he can't scale xp at all in high-tiers to put them in line with AA xp from lower tiers because it would SUBTRACT AAs from you if you used mask buffs. We're forever digging ourselves into a hole by letting it go further and further.

I can give plenty of examples on how the server could be improved to the point where you'd barely even feel a change in the end. But this thread is way too far gone for it to be thrown in at this point would be like pissing in the ocean. And as I stated in the last post, people are focusing on the wrong part of the discussion, which is the "what?" and not the "why?".

Why does XP have to scale any more at high tiers? It's fine as is, T10 XP = T6 XP just like T9 = T6. New tiers can't come out more than every couple years or so anyway. Seems to me this is more of the haves wanting to lock in their share (and expand it with more xp bumps) and prevent others from catching up (consciously or not). It's one of the oldest stories on EZ, and is a microcosm of economic problems we face IRL as well. It's actually interesting to see.

Seems to me people who beat the game feel compelled to farm T6 and are pissed it detracts from their T9 or T10 time. Why does the whole server including those who paid good money to help it have to get screwed to make it even more rewarding for those who have already beat the game?

Mass farming AA in T6 is a choice. As I said not everyone wants to or even can do it. I guess we should be thankful the same guys who abused T6 when it was broken are still champing at the bit to get another leg up (not implying you K I just know a lot did).

We have a disagreement on this is all but Hate has to hear the dissent too - he asked for our opinions on this.

Edit: Just came up with another easy solution. Make crystals drop MORE often in higher tiers, instead of less. Why do crystals drop more in T6? The increase in crystal drops should occur progressively with tiers. I have no idea why they don't already. Additionally, add the uber AAXP belt and be done with it. The belt would have 1000 levels and consume 5x as much AA as the mask. Problem solved without nerfs, plus we get another thing to work on forever. Huge win for everyone.

Rofl, your general train of thought on my side of the fence couldn't be more wrong. I don't give a FUCK about AA's for myself or my crew currently, I'm done. I was actually trying to explain to Hate why people are erupting over what he suggested, because it literally would make the RoA take 3x longer. I don't want that for anybody. That does not change the fact that this is just one more situation he has to un-fuck in order to move forward with development. People that currently have RoA 1k's and beyond worked their ass off, with or without the occasional Rymo buff to speed things along. The truth to that is, I see more people with RoA 1k's than I do with v3 clickies, so it obviously isn't breaking too much on that front. I tried, time and time again, to explain the downsides of not being able to touch experience at the moment.

As for this little gem,
It's fine? Tell me again how having t7 = about 1/10 the xp of t6 is fine. Tell me again how t8 is about 1/50 the xp of t6 is fine. Tell me again how t9 is about 1/20 the xp is fine. And t10, it's not even worth talking about. Mob HP has reached a new high, your xp bar doesn't even move. Just as t7 was based off your dps achieving full Ult Charm 2 + strike 9 upgrades, t10 is based around you having full Ult Charm 3 on all dps + a maxed Ult Weapon on the tank. The HP here makes t9 feel like Qvic. So no, t10 xp = t6 xp is not fine for having a well-balanced server. Having to go back to t6 to do the next ages quest after already doing it for two ages quests is not fine.

Already solved that with my crystal solution. No nerf necessary. In fact, if you want to keep it exclusive by tier and toon, make the crystals no drop.

Also, I know you don't give a F about your AAs... that was my point.

Just because I do not care about my AAs does not reflect my decision to say OK. I do not agree with making RoA take 3x the time it took for others. If this change were to take place, I'd say the RoA prices definitely have to take a hit as well to fall into place, but not by 1/3. Just by being able to open the doors to AA's in other zones will make it twice as easy for the average player. I'm not some head-held-high egotistical shithead that thinks "haha ya i'm done, screw those guys let them eat nerfs" The Exp simply has to be changed for the good of the server. If RoA got its price cut in half, exp % items got cut by 1/3, the rest of that would more than be offset by being able to make the other zones not completely suck.

I put it in color for you this time, so maybe you can fucking see it, since I've already stated this over and over and over.

I believe this is the end of the constructive feedback. As a result, locking the thread to prevent further pissing.

tl;dr - AAXP will only work for AAs, Ring of the Ages, Mask of the Ages, and Earring of the Ages. New ___ of the Ages will use different systems/forms of progression as AAXP is simply not viable for meaningful gains outside of explosively large values (which, like our HP/Damage situation, is not good).

-Hate

What's wrong with using crystals? Seems like a massive massive headache to redo every AA cost system if we could just add progressively more no drop crystals to higher tiers?

Thanks Hate for keeping us informed. When you go to make this change you probably will have to break it down barney style for some of us. The readjustment of aa costs for ages items should keep it from killing newer players progression and eliminate the complaints.

Hate,
Our explosively large values are what makes this server so much fun :) yes it's harder to deal with I can imagine but that was hunters vision as I saw it.
Thanks for keeping the server going with new content and stuff as well as fixing these issues.
I think krucial hit on why this thread turned into what it did, people are seeing nerf as that's really what was discussed more so than the problem at hand and solutions.

I know your time is valuable but maybe in a different thread you could show a simplified example of the current exp scaling and how the exp buffs and reward items are currently effecting AAEXP. Then show how it would scale properly with the new AAEXP from mobs and the lowered AA buff values.