One aspect of the EverQuest 2 Live vs. EverQuest 2 Extended (Free-to-Play) debate has been how Station Access fits into the picture. Many Station Access players are using the account not to play multiple SOE games, but for the extra 5 character slots.
With the “EQ2 Subscription Perks” announced by SmokeJumper for monthly, quarterly, and yearly subscriptions, designed to offset and contrast against the EQ2 Extended servers, Station Access players have been feeling left out.
In a thread entitled “Station Access Accounts – No Multi-Month, No Extras, No Nothing“, SmokeJumper has hinted at some possible changes going forward.
Actually, (and I can’t commit to things because this stuff is under the control of Marketing…not Dev), the changes I proposed were mostly to the multi-month memberships, not to the SA packages specifically.
If you’re signing up for SA because you like to play multiple games, then it’s already a fantastic deal. However, if you’re signing up for SA just because you like having more character slots, then its obvious why you’re bummed about not getting to take advantage of the multi-month memberships. So my proposal was intended as a solution for folks that aren’t using SA for multiple games, but are only using it for extra character slots.
That might make my proposal obvious, but I’ll wait and see if marketing runs with the idea before rolling it out any further here. No guarantees…just working it from my side also to see if I can help make changes.
“So my proposal was intended as a solution for folks that aren’t using SA for multiple games, but are only using it for extra character slots.” This along with his its a marketing department comment probably means that we will see extra slots on $tation ca$h. If smokejumper has shown us anything, its his ability to macro transaction.
Pay for character slots.
If you’re only paying for station access for extra character slots, why not just pay for 2 normal accounts for the same price (after you buy the software)? You’d get 14 total slots instead of 12, and the ability to 2-box. I know there’s an XP bonus by having multiple 90s on the same account, but I would think mentoring and 2-boxing is faster XP gain than the 10% bonus.
Question: Do you still get the 5 free monthly LoN booster packs with a normal account, or is that only Station?
yes you get the 5 free monthly lon on either type of account. The reason I went from having 3 accounts (yearly) to 1 monthly SA account is:
1. You can cancel at any time, and your not paid up for a year or more in advance if you go multi-month
2. Heirloom items cannot be traded across accounts.
3. One account is older than the other so vet rewards are different on each one.
4. lot easier to go /camp toonname then log completely out and completely in again.
However, my main reason was the first two. Sure having two accounts is nice to box but I found myself doing that less and less.
I’d much rather pay for extra slots one time then give them 30 bucks a month.
They should make the the 3,6,12, month rewards Heirloom..
The reason I go for station access rather the multi accounts is the heirloom and the vet rewards on my primary account. Heirloom killed my interest in having multiple accounts.
Heirloom is about the only decent incentive I can see for one SA account over 2 normal, especially with stuff like marks, shards, and other specialty currency.
You are not forced to pay for multi-month. 1-month recurring is still $14.99 so I don’t understand being able to cancel any time as an incentive versus SA.
Another question. If you pay the 2500 SC to move a character from a 6-year account to a new account, will he keep all the vet rewards already claimed?
If they would have set SAers to platinum membership that would make me happy because i would have almost everything i have on the live servers then. This gold membership feels like EQ2 on lockdown… I’m also scared to even go back to EQ2X because of what it did to my account the last time. Deth could tell you all about it since it happened to them too.
As a addition to my last comment; This is what people mean by too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the broth. If SOE would just find the dev team they want and stick with them, we wouldn’t have stockpiles of changes that don’t even go good with stuff we had before. For example, smokejumper making all these marketing changes, vs the guys who gave us the station accounts in the beginning. If everybody was up to date on how things work, and were able to work with the devs who did everything, there wouldn’t be any problems.
Typo: for station accounts, i meant to say station access accounts.
@Tryon Yes, if you claim items such as Vet rewards, they will carry them over to the other account (and heirloom ones become heirloom for the new account they are transferred to), just as if you transfer a newer account toon to an older account they will have access to the vet rewards for the older account.