A new TSS is not needed but a similar expansion that does start at lvl 85, which is where TSS has ended. HoT is not really eligible to newbie players that are buying a lvl 85 heroic toon. Same for lvl 100 heroic toons. The game does need a newbie friendly expansion for heroic toons with a friendly atmosphere like TSS and not something dark and strange like HoT, and overwhelming like RoF. Both are good expansions but not for newbies. I can see such an expansion in classic norrath environment which would also be a good opportunity for revamped zones, but just inside the expansion without removing old ones. Qeynos, Halas, Kelethin, Kaladim .... it is hard to choose between Anontica and Faydwer as both continents are great. It would fit well to the 30th anniversary phase. Maybe an xpack for 2024, or is it already to late for that ?
Outside of them unlocking an expansion for FTP all that has been required is to purchase the expansion. People do play in the latest expansion by purchasing it on FTP accounts for characters that are not super dependent on gear or are just buff bots.
Any zones we get for lower levels means that we get fewer zones for current level and we already don't get enough of those.
Newbies are going to get their butts kicked no matter what. Doesn't matter if they are a heroic 85 , heroic 100 or 120 for that matter. In all cases they need to go to older/easier zones to learn the their class. Expansions like Depths of Darkhollow and the Serpent's Spine where both good and level 85's should be able to work through them fairly easily. House of Thule should be very doable with a level 100 heroic. There is no shortage of expansions and zones.
Exactly. There is too much stuff for FTP characters to do. They should be capped at level 40-60 and unable to enter higher level zones. Maybe cap it at PoP and 65. That would either force people to pay to support the game, or quit. Either way DB gets more $$$ from those who continue to play, and reduces the amount computer resources required to support the rest of the community.
Did this ever was a problem in the last five years ? The newest expansion that I had really played, and being able to play, was EoK which has eight zones, and 70% of the players gathered in Frontier Mountains. 15% in Lceanium for prog quests, and 15% somewhere else. If the zone difficulty would be better balanced and generally easier, even seven zones can be enough for most servers.
Yes, it has been a problem in every expansion recently with too few zones for the current level game. I don't see how you can say that with only 8 zones it is a good idea to take away some to make lower level content.
Yep agreed. Some people still don't realize what mix it up for a bit means. People that made SoF expansion sure do though. That is one of the expansions people still stick around for. The past 10 years of expansions though, TLP'ers are long gone in those. Why TLP mentioned? Because the TLP players are the ones likely to play in an expansion that is mixed it up a bit. If TLP population is nothing but heavy % of Live server people with nothing to do, well you've got issues then, many many issues. The expansion copy pasta, started with Underfoot. Underfoot is the beginning of raiders only expansion, end game players only expansion. Underfoot had bad reception yet they do the copypasta starting from that rather than mixing it up a bit. 14 years since UF, 2009 Ironically, Thats the start of UF like expansions.
AB is my home so I never had a problem with to many players and not enough zones. Instanced zones can solve such problems for other servers. I never wrote that it would be a good idea to take away zones. I had always demanded a minimum of ten zones several times, since years. However, with instanced zones and better balanced content which does include zones, classes and equipment, it would be possible to reduce many problems including "not enough zones". It is absolutely possible to develop expansions with a higher zone amount including two zones with slightly lower level content with a better ressource handling. Rehashed content (EoK-NoS) has the problem that it often has to repeat outdated zone layout for the nostalgia factor which can waste ressources. Lceanium had a modern zone design (smaller and more focused) at the cost of the nostalgia factor which turned out being a compromise. Interesting idea, but I did not liked it much. Which could mean that more than seven zones are hardly possible for rehashed zone copies but it is possible for expansions with completely new zones and zone mixes like in ToL and NoS. Maybe the devs decided to focus more on zone quality instead on quantity as the team might be much to small for more than seven or eight zones. It is up to the managers to hire more devs to realize more zones per expansion.
I prefer less zones, bigger zones, wide variety of level ranges. Karanas you got the calf elephants level 8 adult elephants level 14 aviaks level 21-28 hill giants level 40ish griffons level 30ish Karanas 2.0 calf elephants, snakes, etc. level 90ish adult elephants, adult snakes, etc. level 100ish hill giants level 120ish griffons level 110ish Non mixed up UF model, copypasta Karana 2.0 every mob 120-125. Ignores the bad reception of UF doing its copypasta for 14 years, ignores rankings that it is not top 10 best MMORPG anymore.
If they had the developer resources to make 10 zones they would be making 10 zones. As it stands now they develop a limited amount of content and expanding that to account for more levels will reduce the content for current levels.
You have no idea why UF was badly received, and it really wasn't. It just added things to make it more difficult than previous expansions. Also, you're not as slick as you think you are. Trying mimic saying "85 and under zones aren't needed" while picking the expansion right before the next level upgrade to 90. Adding in level 90 mobs to a 125 level zone is pointless. You've already got 30 zones with level 90 mobs. And 120-125 level chars aren't going to be going back and helping level 90's with those level 90 mobs. There's not many people leveling alts on live. They're looking forward to progressing the characters they have. Focusing on anything below 120 going into a 125 expansion is kind of a waste.
Such zone layout is definetly over and outdated. We can only re-experience it in rehashed expansions but such a layout is not efficient. Even in the vanilla years big zones like South and West Karana were rather empty which meant wasted dev ressources/costs. However I do also prefer a wider level range per zone instead of a static 3-level range (Example Darklight Caverns: 118,119,120). Each zone should have separate areas with different level ranges and difficulties. A level range of 10 would be possible that way. A level range of 20 or 30 is way to huge. Mistakes of the past don't have to be repeated and classic EQ was very experimental
Oh your talking about mobs that are steroids? Yeah no doubt. These past years of expansions, nothing but mobs on steroids. Ever since UF, same old stuff again, UF model, UF way. For 14 years and ongoing.
I'm pretty sure the devs said in the past they didn't want to create overlap content as it doesn't get used and cut the number of zones we get. They went down the route of HAs instead. The consept was good, but in practice fell short, the balance wasn't there. HAs were originally designed for 3 player and 3 mercs. Dark Light Caverns is the end zone and is locked and should be a challenge for max level chars. As should the Quest to unlock it.
Of course, content should be doable by folks 10 and 15 levels above the cap, but what's missing there are the rewards. Level 85's won't find level 85 gear in DoDH/TSS and nobody level 100+ is leveling themselves beyond a snail's pace anywhere without a bot army or PL.
The idea behind a wider level range is to adapt the zones to a broader player audience. Lower level PCs, higher level PCs, bad geared PCs, uber geared PCs , FTP, AllAccess, weak classes, strong classes, solo players, group players, bad players, good players, young players, old players. A small level range of just three cannot perform that and new expansions all seem to lack mob and quest power variety which does mean that many players will be locked out while others can experience that the content is to easy for them. It would help the game immensely to put more thoughts into zone design and layout. Nobody does buy overpowered expansions where he/she cannot beat or solve anything (mobs on steroids).
