Its been 2 years since a level increase, its time. This is coming from someone that has lobbied a lot against level increases. You can't keep levels the same for huge stretches of time. It would be better if we had 2 expansions a year allowing for an 18 month model of level increases, but barring that, every other expansion is as good as it gets for balance and development harmony. Much better than every expansion. 8 zones is a normal sized expansion. Its not small (or large). The amount of developer time probably is a lot lower every expansion, so what? What do you expect when the game makes less revenue as people quit as the game ages? They won't add more people for less return on their investment, you do realize this is a for-profit business, right? We should be happy they get as much done as they do, these guys are spending far more time per person than anyone should expect, because we at least have devs that for the most part love making this game better (whether we agree with their vision or not is a different matter).
Looks good. One question that hasn't come up yet: Previously, the two most recent expansion had to be purchased. This reads almost like the expansion will be free. I'm guessing that the expansion isn't free - All-Access members just get the perk of getting to the newest playground two weeks before Free to Play folk?
I'd imagine it's just whatever extras, like the loot system, will be delayed 2 weeks. The zones I would think will remain locked.
October release and only a few week long beta for a level increase expansion with some major technical changes doesn't sound too promising. Push it back a month and put the time in on stuff rather than releasing half balanced content.
How can you say 8 zones is a normal size expansion? CotF - 6 zones 2 hubs (worst yearly expansion for zones) RoF - 13 zones + NTOV VoA - 12 zones HoT - 12 zones UF - 12 zones + Brells Arena instance SoD - 14 + a couple of instant zones and raid zone SoF - 11 zones Too tired to do the rest, but you get the picture 12 zones appear to be the average for a yearly expansion. Awaiting news to see how big of an overlap there is and how many zones aimed at level 105.
CotF was EW, Neriak, Bixie, Deadhills initially, then ToR & Argin. What 2 hubs do you mean? It had Void H too, but that wasn't really a proper zone as it's TINY! I'd count CotF as 6 zones basically; half an expansion. 8 zones is therefore still light, but a step up too. It depends how large they are as well. Big complex zones are OK, but is keeping the same artwork and splitting them into 3 for ease of management really just 1 zone or 3 zones (eg Heart of Fear in RoF)? EQ has been like that since day one (the karanas). In modern EQ though they may have modelled those as one larger zone. I'm more interested in the undisclosed info, like how many raids we'll get. They're modelling TDS on TBS to some extent, which had Solteris. It was a great raiding zone IMO! Ideally I'd like raids in each zone, with 3+ raids in a farming end zone. Some form of keying/flagging per character is necessary too for raids IMO. Yes it artificially slows us up, but that is a good thing when all expansion is in one lump.
So, what is the level range for this expansion ? 100-105 ? 95-105 ? Anything at all for characters below 90th level ?
Yeah, they didn't exactly explain this. But I'm assuming that yes, the expansion is not free but you could buy it and then play with your free to play account. Meaning you get the content (and I assume all past expansions) but your toons are crippled with f2p restrictions. Which I guess means that your f2p toons do get level 105, but are still restricted in AAs and can't wear prestige gear or use Journeyman mercs. So they make good buff bots or limited boxes. According to my list CotF is Argin-Hiz · Bixie Warfront · Ethernere Tainted West Karana · Neriak - Fourth Gate · The Dead Hills · The Plane of War · The Void (H) · Tower of Rot. Which is eight zones, exactly what is planned for TDS. Now there is some question about whether The Plane of War counts as CotF. I always try to fit everything in EQ into the proper category, but it can be difficult without SOE input. And,yes, The Void (H) isn't really a zone you can do anything in. But SOE can count things as they want to, so they could create a similar zone in TDS and count it as one of the eight. Still, if TDS has real zones and not Heroic Adventure zones that really do nothing else, it is a nice improvement.
Most likely it will be geared for players 100 - 105.Unless they do a massive expansion, which seems highly unlikely, there won't be anything for characters under the ninetieth level anytime in the near future.
Thats a good question for Chandrok(sp?). RoF saw gear for level 90 to 100, so TDS could possibly see gear for 95 to 105. I'm excited. I remember how crowded and alive Bertox felt when Rain of Fear dropped. Shard's Landing was a lot of fun for a minute
No I hate all of them and I make it clear. 50 levels later and I wonder why I'm still here. Well, I know why. Tried WoW. Hated the mechanics (they don't even have an /assist key) and the player base were a-holes.
I must have been hearing things, didn't they say the beta starts at the end of this month ie 2 weeks from now?
End zone dungeon crawl is far greater then 1 raid per zone constantly getting new dz constantly have to run some where and say phrase. Makes the flow from raid to the next long and boring.
