Your desire for trivial yellow con content so you can PL alts is not good enough reason for not having a level increase.
I had one of those on live for a while. I think it was one half of the face from TBM that was late getting a real name.
Not saying that Lilura is right, but I think that they could have waited another expansion before doing the level increase and it would have been fine. But it was long past having been decided when we found out about it. Most of the arguments made now are more for the next cycle rather than the upcoming expansion if you ask me.
I think the idea would work well with spells and disciplines, so using the beastlord spiritual line as an example: Blessing of Spirituality I Instead of Spiritual Light Blessing of Spirituality II Instead of Spiritual Radiance ... etc etc... in a similar manner to the potion changes. This would save you guys the time of coming up with new names for the same spell lines over and over each expansion. I think items would be harder to do this way without reducing some of the fun, but spell names? seems like it would be a solid win to me.
I very much agree as regards spell naming. Some fancy new spells need fancy new names, but nearly all the core spells would be better served by taking on ordinal naming like Yaulp uses. Pick the best or most iconic name from a spell line's history, and put the rest with it. Mesmerize XVIII Rk. II, Healing Light XV, and so on.
+1 for the spell names. Unique spell names for each new level-raise upgrade of the same spell are totally unnecessary. Keep it simple. If it's nothing but an upgrade of an existing spell - use the same name. Yaulp, Burnout, etc - make them all like that. And it will save spell dev's time. Thanks to Aristo posting his progress during each Beta, we know that it takes a very non-trivial amount of time. However, this discussion should be elsewhere. Item names are fine.
People don't PL on "yellow con content". I find it very interesting the change in tone with your posts between now and 2 years ago. You went from constantly whining about "elites" and "raiders", to constantly whining about the "casuals". Almost like you joined a higher end raid guild.... Hmmm....
Count me a fan of generic spell names as well. I can't tell from Focus AA page what level 110 spell will be upgraded when I buy it. If you had the same generic name, that wouldn't be an issue.
Naming items is often delegated to people that aren't otherwise tasked with creating content or fixing bugs. Sometimes it's handled by people outside our team. (And we appreciate it! <3) We already do what we can to offload tasks that don't require specialized game knowledge so that those that have the chops to fix bugs or create content can do so. Edit: typo!
Spell example : Koadic's Endless Intellect 12 Next expac Koadic's Endless Intellect 13 Sure change the stats , but coming up with new names every single expac , seems like at this point a huge waste of time and effort for game emersion that doesn't really matter. Drop the roman numerals , make it easy on us all , most of all , you guys ! The time you spend on spell names alone every expac now for years must be staggering. I like a good story like anyone else ( lore ) but really the spells for the most part , there tools , I don't personally see them as part of the lore anymore at this point.
I disagree - "KEI 12", "KEI 13", "KEI 14" is soulless and empty. You could just as easily make the same argument about anything in the game - "I just upgraded from PlateChest27 to PlateChest28" "Nice, where did that drop?" "Zone 47, of BossMob12". Many of the spells already have a pattern, using various synonyms or variations on a word - such as the Necro Orbs (Dunkelnacht - Dusternacht - Vollmondnacht), or enchanter mezzes (Mesmerize - Bewilderment - Mystify - Befuddle) all give a sense of the line they belong to, whilst still feeling like at least some minimal thought has been put into it. Not to mention the aspect of spells/items named after people - whilst I'm not aware of having met Prokev or Salik in-game yet, we certainly have seen Vallon, Quellious, Al'Kabor, and Dyn'Leth, which helps tie things together and gives a sense of continuity in the world. I've recently run through EoK progression, to get a couple of toons Essence of the Dragon flagged, and it certainly opened my eyes a lot more to the lore of the game, and would hate to see the storytelling vanish due to mere convenience of getting an expansion out the door.
No need to bunch everything together - spells, items, mobs, zones. It's not 'all or nothing', there is a lot of middle ground. Of course, zones, mobs and items should be unique. They represent the current expansion and are bound to the particular lore, places, story actors. But spells? When was the last time you've asked an Enchanter for their exact named buffs and not just Clarity or Haste? Do you even remember what all your spells are called right now? What about 5 levels ago? I don't know what class(es) you play, but I can tell from my own experience: I don't remember the exact names of all my spells, even the current ones, let alone all of them historically. And I don't care to memorize them. I cast 'Ethereal Fire', 'Fire Claw', 'Cloudburst', etc on my Wizard. I cast 'Mesmerize', 'Charm', 'Clarity', 'Haste', etc on my Enchanter. I play 'War March', 'Spry Sonata', 'Song of Suffering' etc on my Bard. Are there really that many people who want Clarity to have a new name every 5 levels?
Meh? Didn't Prathun say that it doesn't take any developer time since they have some staffer doin' it?
He was talking about items. Spells were always(?) named by the spell dev. And it does take time: Aristo has been posting exactly how his time during Beta was spent.
Hm. So the original post was talking about spells but Prathun responded generically about "naming items"...guess I took it in context to mean spells, since that was what he quoted.
I wouldn't say it doesn't take "any" developer time, because I do have to: prepare a list for people to name with clear instructions, then once I get the names back, proofread and vet the names. Then add them to the items (this last step takes about 5 minutes... but that's SOME time!) BUT. I would say that is saves me 80% of the time it would take if I did it all myself.
Um.... the actual Original Post was about items. The post we are commenting on suddenly diverged off to spells when the tread, to that point, was talking about items. I just went with a guess that maybe the person meant items and mistyped spells? OR... went on a diversion and I steered it back to items.
