EZ Server

0-200 L70
201-400 L72
401-600 L73
601-800 L75
801-1000 L76

To hit the first topic, I'm looking at the BuffLevelRestrictions rule being enabled.

This will basically lock the UWs to those that can actually unlock them.

I'm looking at restricting RoA by 200 ranks to 1.5 levels rounding up. I would also like to do similar things with the Earring and the Shield of the Ages. For RoA, this would look like:

A bit off topic but one of my favorite things to do is create a toon and buff them to hell, then let them lose in a zone like solb. Back flagging kinda sucks as it is, so if you prevent anyone from getting buffs pre 70, you might want to increase the exp in leveling zones.

People who were buff begging are never going to make it past T5 anyhow, so I am not really worried about that.

Level restricting those items seems fine to me.

HOT BUTTON TOPICS!

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First, I'm hearing from several that would like to see buff level restrictions.
Second, I am considering level restricting the UWs to the appropriate tiers (i.e. you can't equip UW VIII before T6 or level 74).
Third, SoA/RoA/EoA needing to be level restricted. (BIIIIIIG stack of QQ emails on this one

yes, yes and more yes. Think about it logically. If you can't farm the essences needed to get UWVI then why should you be able to make it? really? I want to see the argument against this. Might as well just say T10 armor is able to be received by a lvl 70 and go from there. So yes, the UW is restricted to your character's level

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To hit the first topic, I'm looking at the BuffLevelRestrictions rule being enabled. This means any sub 70 can't receive 70+ buffs. No EXP buffs, no Kraken, etc etc. Part of this is to address the concern of people starting, blazing through 1-70 and QVIC, then getting upset when they can't play without the buffs (resorting to buff-begging or burnout & quit). I would like to further hit this by limiting the EXP buffs by script and removing MGB access to the Mask of Experience to ensure QVIC players aren't getting 500% experience bonuses. I brought this up awhile ago to reduce overall EXP gains to address this, but was debated (and often attacked) for trying to fix a problem before it exploded. It exploded, I tried to prevent it. ::shrug::

Level buff restrictions I am onboard with, if you can not yourself cast the buff it is basically bypassing an important aspect of the game. Case in point. When I started I had a pally, found out I wasn't going to make it far like that so I made a shaman and warrior. After time went on I noticed, going to the buff bot sucks! bad. In came my cleric, my druid, my ench, etc. For a long time I resisted the mage, but she came in as well for that Damage Shield. Now, would this hurt me? kinda it would, because I would have to say yes to something that wont allow me to speed through 1-70. However, this whole " I can't play without buffs" thing has to end somewhere. People forget that the people doing the buffing have spent a HUGE amount of time on this characters to get those buffs. Trudge through the snow, no we don't exactly want to see you do what we did, but in a way yes we (I) do. With that said, I would be for limiting buffs to levels, ie you can not receive armor of the crab 3 at lvl 71


Continuing to the second topic, I brought this up before and was met with harsh criticism. This time, some of those same opposing people are emailing me and calling for it. This will basically lock the UWs to those that can actually unlock them. As in the example above, UW VIII should not be usable if you aren't in at least T6, as you would need to be there to farm the essences for it anyway.

Wrapping up, after a dozen lowbies earned the Ring of the Ages Rank 1000 inside a week, my inbox exploded like the New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. I'm looking at restricting RoA by 200 ranks to 1.5 levels rounding up. I would also like to do similar things with the Earring and the Shield of the Ages. For RoA, this would look like:

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Again, there has to be a cap here. What is the point of a lvl 72 with ROA 1k? It defeats the purpose of progression. What do you do in game? exp to death until you get 1k ring and then start the game? Why not just spend that time playing the game through progression and get the items as they were intended to be achieved. Those level restrictions above seem very reasonable. As well as Earring of the Ages, Mana Neck and Shield of the Ages both of which should also be subject to the tier you are on. If you cant physically go camp it yourself, then how do you have the right to say "I earned this item". No, you bought/traded for that item, you did not camp/farm/earn that item. Sorry, butthurt, but you didn't. You bought it/traded for it. If that's the case, again, open up T10 armor for buy/trade, hell skip to the end of the game and then quit 2 days later.

I'm generally not for anything which makes the game harder for new folks

except I think the restriction should start at 400 for ROA.

200 is easy to get at any lvl. Lots of folks will get unreasonably capped there. Maybe the number is 300.

Also, I didn't say it was hard. I said harder.

Your point re: RoA 200 being harder w/o exp buff is valid but I still feel 200 is a low number to start the restriction. It takes very little xp to make RoA 200 compared to higher lvls.

It would obviously make it harder as you said it's a joke without restriction. I'll leave it at that I guess.

Your point re: RoA 200 being harder w/o exp buff is valid but I still feel 200 is a low number to start the restriction. It takes very little xp to make RoA 200 compared to higher lvls.

Was thinking about how to lock Shield/Mana Necklace to progression since Earring/Ring can be easily done with NPC refusing.

How about this, add a new NO TRADE material (Shield blueprint/mold) to each progression rank. Have them being common drop or sort so it won't be painful to farm it. Or maybe have it being sold by vendor in the designed map, similar to vellum. That way when you need to upgrade the shield or necklace, you gotta farm/buy it from the respectable tier map yourself.

As for shield, only one is need to start it and advance it every tier rank (level 1, 6, 11, 16, etc). Just like EoN.

How about we just leave it to level restrictions on the items?

Strike augs are level restricted already.

If we do that, we're going end up with a lot of angry folks who got advanced items on their low level characters being completely unusable.

At very least my suggestion will prevent them from advancing any further until they do progression so they can keep wearing the items.

Plus it make sense to use mold along with EoN ore to craft/upgrade the shield!

Actually, I almost forgot about it, but the Mana Necklace is tradable so level restriction alone should be fine. However shield isn't and it would be upsetting to not being able to wear it post-nerf without doing progression.

Additional, if we're adding level restriction to the Mana Necklace, what about Strike Augs? They're essentially same.

Maybe I'm just caring a bit too much about how this will upset the people.

They shouldn't be trying to get stuff above their tier anyway. Besides, SoA is not required for content so they can do without it for one tier.

There's always a nerf to something after a select few exploit the fuck out of something.. life of this server

There's always a nerf to something after a select few exploit the fuck out of something.. life of this server

Where has anyone exploited anything? I agree with everything Hate has posted and am 100% on board. This isnt something that was due to anyone exploiting but something that has been needed to enforce for a few years now. Good job, Hate, even though I still hate you to the moon and back!

On the Mask....I could potentially scale the EXP bonus allowed through scripting. Would take some testing, but limit the EXP buff similar to RoA system (0-200 L70, 201-400 L72, etc). If a player is L72 and gets 540% buff, it would fade and instead recast rank 400 (as that's their max receivable).

Thoughts?

-Hate

On the Mask....I could potentially scale the EXP bonus allowed through scripting. Would take some testing, but limit the EXP buff similar to RoA system (0-200 L70, 201-400 L72, etc). If a player is L72 and gets 540% buff, it would fade and instead recast rank 400 (as that's their max receivable).

Thoughts?

-Hate

I'm concerned I agree with Orthanos in this thread as he is wrong about basically everything. Still, most of these changes are not unreasonable, generally speaking - as long as they are done right.

In other news this probably shouldn't have been posted on April Fools unless that was intentional ;)

Maybe just make mask land on Raid Only. After all how many people will invite random newbs for buff.  :-*

Maybe just make mask land on Raid Only. After all how many people will invite random newbs for buff.  :-*

What I don't get is how people mentioned that the buffs higher tier players MGB breaks the game for lower tier players compared to having needed certain ez reward items why nerf any of this @ all only thing i see reasonable here is the RoA

We can all agree that it's very beneficial to have, but not literally necessary.

If you are looking at way to fix the server for the health, maybe you should look at the people playing on your server and not these changes. It's no longer why I play here and probably why some of the people sending me tells the other day about FH members will either have already quit or leave soon enough.

Oh christ, okay first of all. Regarding on the certain EZ item. See -


oh christ what? you havent been on this server longer then a year guaranteed and you're asking for nerfs that would be very disturbing.. removing MGB from the game because like your self new players depended on it at an earlier stage, most of high tier plays have atleast 2 grps that means 1 grp with buffs and 2nd-4th group gets shunned down. Me ranting about prices of reward items i guess is more tedious then you asking for these, makes sense.

oh christ what? you havent been on this server longer then a year guaranteed and you're asking for nerfs that would be very disturbing.. removing MGB from the game because like your self new players depended on it at an earlier stage, most of high tier plays have atleast 2 grps that means 1 grp with buffs and 2nd-4th group gets shunned down. Me ranting about prices of reward items i guess is more tedious then you asking for these, makes sense.

I'm concerned I agree with Orthanos in this thread as he is wrong about basically everything. Still, most of these changes are not unreasonable, generally speaking - as long as they are done right.

In other news this probably shouldn't have been posted on April Fools unless that was intentional ;)

Hate if you make the mask changes you are proposing (different bonus per lvl etc.), please make the mask a raid buff as well. Nice trade off and will result in less folks MGBing exp in nexus. Also allows us to put mask on other toons besides melee which don't use MGB for other stuff.

Ultimate Weapons shouldn't have a level requirement like mentioned. They were supposed to be these super hard-to-get weapons that not everyone would have. Contrary to people thinking T7+ is what people should need first, or the proposed level requirement on the weapon of each tier, it's kind of a strange thing to suggest. Although the level requirement wouldn't really have any kind of impact on anyone (maybe 1 in every 1000 people actually farm enough and trade to get an UW2 before they can use it) they would still be at a loss due to losing that proc. Maybe rank 7-8 and up would be a different story because of the raw damage increase, but regardless, they'd still be losing that proc which is still very worth having. In my opinion, if someone really wanted to upgrade their UW early, then all to them. However, like I said, this change is basically irrelevant and won't really effect anyone anyway.

Ultimately it will be up to Hateborne, with the thoughts of the server majority to make these tough decisions. We can either look at it from a logically sound point of view for the health of the server or we can look at it from a "I want this item and you shouldn't deny me it because you have/had it" ideology. 

The best way Hate, is to use the level limits. Optionally if you're bored, you can make them recommended levels and set the items to scale down for lower levels who got them before they reached that level. That way people who got these items above their tier can use them as if they were the lower ranked item until they level up.

I would just like to point out that as the veterans that have been raging on these issues and demanding everything that doesn't apply to them be made harder and take longer, they are actively steering people away from the server. Since this shitstorm hit I have had far less desire to play. All the rage and QQ has been exhausting. They act as if the 100's of hours I and other newer players have put in are meaningless, how dare we be progressing. How dare it not take as long as when they progressed and were waiting on each new tier to be developed. How dare there be any differences from the experience they had 6 years ago. I know this isn't everyone's intention, but it is the end result. This is an unrealistic expectation of any MMO which is by definition a dynamic and changing environment. Furthermore, I believe a speed differential over time is a necessity for any aging online community. Just because someone hasn't been along for the journey since the beginning, doesn't mean they can't be made a valuable part of it moving forward. Look at virtually any MMO that hasn't shutdown and has been around for an extended period of time. The experience of the veterans will almost undoubtedly have been longer and more difficult then new players. Why? Because new blood is vital to any community without it the community will wither and die.

While balance may need to be tuned, kneejerk reactions at the point of the pitchforks of an angry mob is not an ideal solution. Changes should be weighed carefully and tested. Some veterans should try creating a new group with zero assistance from their other toons or anyone else and progress. Still think leveling up a fresh group is so quick and easy? Document your experience. Maybe there are somethings that are no duh to you that are unknown to others and that is why there is this divide in perception between those currently working in the lower tiers and those wanting it nerfed. Just remember there is still tons and tons and tons of grind on the server.  No need to try and burn people out on the low tiers.


This is just my two cents on the matter. I just wanted to express my point of view from the other side of the wall.

That side being a newer player of a 6 man group.
/played time 53 days (1,272 hours) I get pulled away a lot so let's say somewhere between 50%-75% actually playing that's 636-954 hours.
Working on T5, Group has their 4.5 epics, Strike Augs, Finishing UC's, RoAs 299-374, SoA 10, and Just got first UW1 on War.

In summary the pitchfork wielding mob needs to chill and Hate needs to make the changes he feels are best in his own time and not be rushed.

No.....the rule is the retard who got too confused by P99, who's bored to tears with games like Warcrap who came here because the wife/and-or Mommy wouldnt give them the credit card to buy a sub to a mainstream game, and who saw the name "EZ" and got immediate wood.....who then started smashing his safety helmet into the keyboard screaming "BAD!! BAD MAN! RENT BAD MAN!"

Ok, sorry, I got that out of my system. Rent, some days you're my hero.

There IS no "rule". Get 10 new players and you'll see 10 completely different reasons for playing and play styles. But one thing I WILL tell you: of the players who would make it here long term you'll see far more drieven away by shit being too easy than ones being "driven off" because they cant buy their way to T9.

I'd suggest the buffbot combo buff could be revisited and cast a good set of buffs that last for 2 hours or so and also give an exp boost buff scaling by progression tier and these buffs should persist through death...the downside would be a 6 hour lockout/recourse buff that prevents you from just constantly hailing when the duration is getting low.  This way people could log on knowing they are going to be able to get a good solid 2 hours out of their playtime instead of hoping or buff begging for MGB's that negate the challenge of progression completely.

As for the rest, I call em like I see em. Warcract killed MMO's, in my opinion. Idiots who expected every other freaking game out there to follow that same pathetically craptastic formula, whining all the time about how "grindy" a game is have pretty much ruined every other game thats come since. I'd honestly rather NOT see this server take that same road. If you want an easy game you can log into and basically spend several hours trading Al Gore or Chuck Norris quips there are plenty to chose from out there; dont in one breath state how boring and cheap these other games are then state that we need to follow the same formula here. Thats....illogical. And destructive. Just....dont. Or did I misunderstand your statement?

Minor Updates!

Ok, here we go again with miscellaneous updates. :-)


Ring of the Ages had recommended (rec) level and required (req) level set. The levels are as follows:

• Ranks 0 - 200: Rec/Req levels of 70
• Ranks 201-400: Req level of 70, rec level of 72
• Ranks 401-600: Req level of 72, rec level of 73
• Ranks 601-800: Req level of 73, rec level of 75
• Ranks 800-1000: Req level of 75, rec level of 76

Mask of Experience buffs are now regulated via level. When a Mask of Experience buff is cast (group cast or MGB cast), it checks against the level chart below to determine your highest eligible buff. If you receive a rank higher than your "set amount", it recasts the lower buff on you instead. This way the Mask of Experience is effectively 'unchanged'.

• 1-69: 0%
• 70: 50%
• 71: 100%
• 72: 150%
• 73: 200%
• 74: 250%
• 75: 300%
• 76: 350%
• 77+: No cap

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The RoA level caps are due to the regeneration values simply not eligible to scale down. If we are ok with REMOVING the regeneration from RoA, then I can remove required level cap (leaving only the recommended one).

These changes spawned off of feedback from email and from the thread below:
http://ezserver.online/forums/index.php?topic=5102.msg65977#msg65977


-Hate

Looking at UWs next. From the feedback received in email form and from this thread, considering limiting weapon to on-tier. I say this because UWXI would require 78 to equip and UWXII would required 79 (completing T10) to equip. It may disarm quite a few being unable to use their UWXI at 77 instead of 78. However, if opinions are strong for it, I'm not opposed.


-Hate

It may disarm quite a few being unable to use their UWXI at 77 instead of 78. However, if opinions are strong for it, I'm not opposed.
-Hate