As if the recent nerfs/changes aren't already a clue? What they take away, they will probably sell back to you in the next expac
I did find this... - Enchanger 1.5 Epic Quest: Fixed a typo in the book to say "...oil of a dragon" instead of "...oil ofa dragon". Oh the irony....
My guess is that they are focusing on technical improvements and polishing this time around, rather than visible new features. Who knows? maybe that "spell optimization" means that we casters might finally get upgrades to our weapon augs...
Many newer changes/features have been released with normal patches outside of expansion releases. Many of them have been "quality of life improvements" rather than advertise-able features. Advanced loot tool, stat-consolidation and buff-linking comes to mind, but lately it has mostly been performance-tweaks, which isn't really "marketable". Still, they are absolutely needed. But "now, with less lag!" or "more streamlined looting" doesn't really help with selling expansions. I personally think the key-chains were rather "meh" compared to more recent improvements. It smelled too much like market-place driven fluff...it didn't really "add" anything to the gameplay or the user experience. I suspect key-chains were a solution to a problem DBG "wished" we had, rather than what the players wanted. I personally hope they will try to make a scaleable UI, that looks good "out of the box" on all sizes of monitors. The inflexible UI-scaling with too tiny fonts, is the first thing returnees will complain about in the future... It would feel wrong if it was locked behind a specific expansion though...
The Find feature for inventory was supposed to be a RoS feature, that they just tossed into the main patch. Most of the "good changes" ranging from the Achievement system to Housing have already been implemented. Other than maybe a Faction system reader and such, there's really no additional systems they can add. The rest would be updating systems like Monster Missions or Shrouds.
I disagree with this perspective. If enough people sat around and thought about an innovative new feature, I bet we could come up with something. It is easy to look at the game and think “I have everything,” but coming up with brand new concepts is difficult. It is akin to “not knowing what you don’t know.” In fact, it isn’t hard to look at other games and identify new features that don’t currently exist in EQ. Pantheon’s progeny feature is one example. While I don’t think it is reasonable to expect something of that magnitude to be introduced at this stage, it is unfair to make the statement that “there’s really no additional systems they can add.” I’m not saying these are features that could/should or I even want added, but there are plenty that don’t exist in EQ today: 1) “Rest” experience bonus 2) Introduction of a new tradeskill 3) Tons of others!
I don't TS...I will pay someone to make the most basic level of TS items...and I fully agree and support this statement
There's a 48 page thread on this main page, Quality of Life improvements, filled with many good ideas. I'm sure a few could be picked up out of there. Here's my favorite... cast a detrimental spell on a player, it lands on their target. Cast a beneficial spell on a mob, it lands on their target. For classes with a lot of both detri and beni spells, it would be a huge quality of life change.... a feature which EQ2 has had since it started, in 2004! The nice part about that, as opposed to a 30 minute bonus like LotD, is that you can just play as you normally would, and not have to "cram" stuff in to the 30 minute window. And not worry about a groupmate dying, or someone pulling mobs from your perfect camp, or whatever.