Please consider some variation of this for TLP. It seems most peoples problem is either low playtime availability or that they find levelling to be tedious. With Heroic characters they can skip levelling and they don't need a large amount of playtime. There would be no reason to pay another player for an afk PL in low level xp zones which causes chaos and frustration for players trying to xp the regular way. Players can just buy characters instead of maxing out toons and the going back to low level xp zones and to box/PL alts. They wouldn't have to come with decent gear or any gear for that matter, lets face it the gear isn't that good till PoP hits anyway, maybe they could be upgraded to come with T1 gear in PoP? The issue seems to be levels. If you speed up xp so that players can attain max level after a couple of weeks by just playing an hour an evening then those with more playtime will just become bored, create alts and PL them which ruins xp zones for those joining the server any time after the server launch.
If you by heroic characters, i.e. the current system of level 85, then they are unlocked with House of Thule. If you mean a different level for TLPs. It would be possible to have a level 50/51 boost (I can't remember the level), as they already have all of the armor sets and skill sets premade. They can use the stuff used for the Quarm server. I can log on my cleric, but I believe they started at 50 with level appropriate defiant armor. Level 50 defiant armor is better or equal to Plane of Time armor, I believe. At the least the Intricate Defiant Armor is. If you want any other level/armor set than you should know that it would be very, very unlikely. Current live players can't want an upgraded Heroic character option (i.e. level 100/105 with level appropriate armor) for years, and have been told that it would take either too much resources, or is not in the spirit of the game. The new servers are coming with AoC, as far as I am aware, and powerleveling wouldn't effect others if that was the case (because of instancing).
You still level in open world content though. There are picks but unfortunately they close down when the numbers drop which would place somebody PL'ing in the same pick as regular xp groups. If it's not possible then fair enough and it would have to be a stripped down version, obviously they couldn't come with defiant gear in classic. Another reason that some version of this would be a better option than speeding up xp would be when new expansions unlock. If players are able to max out after a couple of days then there's nothing to do till the next expansion drops, other than level alts. You would have more players logging in solely to raid. Personally I think that pretty much destroys the social aspect of being in a guild. AoCs are just for raid targets
Speeding up EXP is great, it doesn't need as much time for AAing, it allows time for camping gear and doing some quests and doing some tradeskills. There is a lot more to EQ than raiding. I'd rather have faster exp than Heroic Chars, they will never put HCs at every level increase. Faster exp helps all the time as apposted to HCs which are one offs.
Seems like DBG could make a mint from something like this: Once per account you could buy (1) potion of Epic experience. Effect - instantly level to 50, with epic, 40-slot WR bag, and 10k plat Cost, 17,500 DayBreak Cash... How many would pay for that?? Never happen, but fun to think about...
This was discussed recently and one of the devs said it is a ton of work and unlikely they would create another set of heroic characters for a while.
I used to think exactly the same way until I saw the benefits of such a program on Live. I cringe at the thought of being max level after a week on a 3 month unlock server. I cringe at the thought of all those bored players. I cringe at the idea that Daybreak could speed up xp and cater to the 4hrs a week crowd
What I like about it is the hopeful decrease to PL services. Nuthin like going to a zone to level and every pick has 0 mobs up due to PLers pulling whole zones at a go.
I cringe at the thought of someone who has never played a chanter or bard or insert not braindead class here suddenly trying to do late game content.
They already have the 51/51 model made so they could do that and then there is the actual level 85 HC. To make anything outside of this which players on live have been asking for is very time intensive and probably wont happen as they have told players on live. HC are an awesome tool for anyone coming back to the game and need to get caught up with the pack so it would be nice if they had different level variations depending on where servers are in the game but again its tons of developer hours that they just don't have.
I see your point, there's so many new players flooding to Everquest with no experience of how the classes work. Much better to make them grind for a week to make them raid ready! You do realize that every class, max level raid geared are available on the RMT sites don't you?
Not a new concept. It needs to be simple and applicable in multiple scenarios to have legs I think. For example... 51/50 could easily be a character creation option as of PoP... if they came naked. Otherwise it would have to be era tied to defiant coming in (and that needs adjusted if it is still TSS era...). That's too late for progression for it to really be useful. Making this template naked might be a lot of work though --could be worth it. Or is it less work to just create a new level 40 naked character creation option? You could allow this as of Velious. On progression the bulk of population still playing by Velious is 50+. People test driving level 40 chanters are not going to unbalance the game. Naked is far less work to default gear for the devs. Is level 40 creation useful for a future Quarm event? [maybe...] A level 60 naked template for GoD would be a great re-entry hook. Also allows a lot of interesting Quarm events. There's also the long-standing idea to allow advanced character creation on live servers. 51/50 as an option you can just select. The problem for some with existing heroics is that it is too high of a boost. The problem for many with existing heroics is it is not enough of a boost for live. However... a "can of whup leveling" sold in the marketplace might be an easier way to address the PLing and monetize it for Daybreak. They could offer different cans set to different levels. Nobody has to know that your Luclin era started character used a can to get to 40...
Not a new concept. It needs to be simple and applicable in multiple scenarios to have legs I think. For example... 51/50 could easily be a character creation option as of PoP... if they came naked. Otherwise it would have to be era tied to defiant coming in (and that needs adjusted if it is still TSS era...). That's too late for progression for it to really be useful. Making this template naked might be a lot of work though --could be worth it. Or is it less work to just create a new level 40 naked character creation option? You could allow this as of Velious. On progression the bulk of population still playing by Velious is 50+. People test driving level 40 chanters are not going to unbalance the game. Naked is far less work to default gear for the devs. Is level 40 creation useful for a future Quarm event? [maybe...] A level 60 naked template for GoD would be a great re-entry hook. Also allows a lot of interesting Quarm events. There's also the long-standing idea to allow advanced character creation on live servers. 51/50 as an option you can just select. The problem for some with existing heroics is that it is too high of a boost. The problem for many with existing heroics is it is not enough of a boost for live. However... a "can of whup leveling" sold in the marketplace might be an easier way to address the PLing and monetize it for Daybreak. They could offer different cans set to different levels. Nobody has to know that your Luclin era started character used a can to get to 40...
