Expansion Request

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Skrab, Jul 31, 2021.

  1. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Disagree.
    Level raise every 2 years is fine imho.

    Rather than that I think they should have a 60+ solo levelling path with just very basic gear (below group quality) that allows players to work up the levels at their own pace, new zones does not solve teh problem of a lack of players the same level or higher level players willing to invite you to group and essentially carry you.

    A "sidekicking" mechanic to level a lowbie up to the average group level would be even better if it can be done.

    Catching up systems do need some work on enabling behind-the-curve players though, passively doing overseer for level XP is simply inadequate.
  2. quakedragon Augur

    Why is level increase necessary?


    They already have solo paths for gear, its the Hero's Journey.
    It's not bad until lvl 75 where it starts to want group content to be finished for the gear. Some even mini raids like https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=4641 there is no way someone is going to complete that solo at 75, it should be removed from that Hero's Journey.

    TSS expansion and Tutorial would disagree with you about new zones not solving the problems with new zones and lack of players in the same zone. I see other lowbies in Tutorial, I see other lowbies in BFM and CR.
  3. Tucoh Augur

    I'd be happy if they never raised the level cap again. The formulaic increase in stats, spells and gear is just busywork for the players.
    Metanis and Velisaris_MS like this.
  4. quakedragon Augur

    One other thing I want to put out there since talking about next expansion.
    GW2 is coming out with https://www.guildwars2.com/en/end-of-dragons/

    It is coming out with something EQ does not have, combat mounts.
    Out at sea fishing, and strike missions (these are for people who not good enough for raids), its still lvl 80.
    Also, its $29.99, GW2 makes most of its money from the store, and there is too much good cosmetics to buy. Some game's stores have stuff but not worth buying, GW2 on the other hand it has a lot of stuff worth $$$.
    In GW2 you can buy the store currency, something maybe EQ should implement, if it's looking for ways to bring plat out of the game.

    GW2 basically gave a lot of free expansion stuff (Icebrood Saga, its living story), the community wanted a paid expansion, thats how good it is doing $$ wise. If you look at their store, it has stuff people actually want, people buy it, theres so much stuff in there store it would be nice to have. EQ somewhat had this with LoN card game, it is missed. Minigames are fun in MMORPGs.

    If you look at GW2 reviews on facebook ads, or YouTube videos, their mostly positive. I read reviews on ESO, those are mostly negative, EQ is mostly positive. But I feel people don't stick around in EQ due to midgame to end game is too much for returning player.

    So, just putting that out there because its good to see what other games are doing, their pricing, their methods.
    Also, just so that people don't think 'what else could they do, it has everything already'. There is still other stuff like combat mounts, in WoW mounts fly around. EQ doesn't have it all down. GW2 has flying mounts too, it went from no flying to flying.
    GW2 has racing in it too, which is unique because no other MMORPG does it like they do, and its definitely a game I come back to frequently.

    But problem I see with EQ is the mid game, its time to find a good solution to it.
    I notice people talk about beating game too fast, thats why I mentioned keys, and 1 key dropping from event, failure attempts have a 6 hour lockout, and the highest tier group zones be nothing but mini raid nameds. Your not in highest tier zone for xp, your there for loot, so why not make them all mini raids (2-3 groups is ok).
  5. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Because stagnation sucks and EverQuest has been a vertical progression game since the start.
    Changing the game to have no more level increases is a pretty fundamental change to a core tenet of its design and the concept of outgrowing the content that went before through character growth.
    Ssdar and Nennius like this.
  6. Nolrog Augur

    3 missions plus 4-5 quests for partisan and 4-5 for mercenary per zone.
  7. demi Augur

    better get used to stagnation , once EQ goes into Maintenance mode thats all it will be .. whether its 1 yr from now or 5 it will happen ..
  8. Hekaton Augur

    no level cap increase? as a shaman our class got totally hosed on class AA. would be the suck if there were no upgrades for a second straight year. All the COV gear focuses are coded for 120 anywho so why not raise the cap.

    As for missions and raids i think a good idea would be the narrative that the expansion follows but maybe have a couple of missions that branch off that don't follow the raid structure and come to their own logical expansion conclusion.

    Kinda like the return of the king. The raids could be attacking the eye of sauron but the group focus gets frodo inside the mountain. In the end they all get to the same point in the story. I dunno. just spitballing....i would like more than 4 missions tho.
    Ssdar likes this.
  9. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    Oh noes...the game will get slow when they stop making content!
  10. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor

    This is already maintenance mode. EQ1 has the easiest to please audience and desperately accepts any expansion regardless of quantity and quality. If you haven’t noticed the EQ1 and EQ2 are basically skeleton crews with shared resources.
    Qelil and Metanis like this.
  11. Svann2 The Magnificent

    What would be the alternative in an mmorpg if there wasnt levels, spells, and loot to chase? Seems to me a large part of an mmo is progressing your character.
    Skuz, Ssdar and Nennius like this.
  12. Skrab East Cabilis #1 Realtor

    Fun.
    Velisaris_MS, Nennius and Elyssanda like this.
  13. Tucoh Augur

    Vertical progression is fine, just the level increase is too formulaic in EQ. It's all bald-face +1 gooder, but with more steps and allegedly a tremendous amount of designer time to implement. I'd take a single new ability or revitalization of a spell line that was as interesting as the dichotomic spells instead of five levels with the same rehashed spell lines. Even if leveling that new ability was as hard as going from 110 to 115. Hell, mudflation reduces the variety of abilities purely because there's not enough time to tune the spells and abilities to have the same impact. Is that intentional? I doubt it.

    To answer the core of your question, guild wars 2 has been an experiment to do just that for last nine years or so. I hit the level 80 cap 3 days after gw2 release and got a full set of top end gear two days later. Then i went to sleep. I went back to it this year and was still level capped, my gear was still suitable for most of the game and I was still able to participate in most of the endgame content. What was there to do? A whole hell of a lot.
  14. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    You understand that you just kinda justified adding in the boring level increases versus not, right? You just said you maxed out in days, then stopped playing, and came back years later and were able to step right back in. So for a paid service in this case (EQ), why would they want it to ever be that way?

    Its bad enough when people max out this content in weeks and then after a few months of the same raids bail on paying for the game until the next expansion. They want people to keep subbing.
  15. Svann2 The Magnificent

    No thats really not an answer. I see progression as fun, you dont.
    If you dont like progression in an mmo, then what is the fun alternative?
    Ssdar likes this.
  16. Svann2 The Magnificent

    You finished progression in 2 days then left for 9 years? Why did you leave? Could it be because you were bored because you finished it too quickly?
  17. Tucoh Augur

    lol, no. I played for five days straight to max out then went to bed. I then had fun playing like, ridiculous hours by competing in PvP for six months before moving on.

    Now I've come back and am having fun enjoying the horizontal progression approach in the game as a casual player. The game isn't bifurcated between most of the population with maxed out characters and a string of have-nots playing in deserts trying to get to the crowd like EQ is. You can jump in, very quickly hit max level and then choose one of the many avenues of horizontal progression available, which is what nearly every other player is also doing.

    EQ shouldn't adopt this model, but it's worked very well for GW2. I'm just saying that EQ shouldn't pursue its vertical progression with copy-paste levels every two expansions.
  18. quakedragon Augur

    Verticle progression favors end game raiders, while horizontal favors the casuals.
    Proof in this pudding is how many casual guilds are left.

    I went to the guild boards in GL, only 1 guild listed. Theres really only 1-3 casual guilds left, meanwhile 1-4 raid guilds.

    The casual community is almost non-existent in EQ. Pretty much box everything, create own box guild or join that 1 to maybe 3 casual guilds.

    This is why there needs to be a catchup expansion, increasing the lvl only makes it more difficult for casuals to get to end game, 110 to 115 is hell? Well now 115 to 120 is hell. 4 years ago probably 105 to 110 was hell. Did they ever address it? This is why we need a catchup expansion. TSS, you can solo your way to end game.

    What was the purpose of CoV, what was their goal to achieve? Just put out something? CoV could have been a catchup expansion.

    Also, let me point this out too, if you make a catchup expansion, that means people have to order the expansion to play in the catchup zones, so you get people paying for the expansion and the monthly fee.



    I go back to GW2 a lot too, play randomly, its an easy game to get back into. I still have a lot of character progression to do in that game. I barely even started Icebrood Saga, a free expansion. EQ on the other hand, I haven't played a bit since 2012. Maybe in a few months I'll be gone, because other games are coming out. And with EQ, it takes a lot of work to get back into the game.

    GW2, I can play the expansion right away. EQ, if its 115-120, that expansion does not apply to me because I'm not even close to 115. I see facebook ad, come play EQ lvl 120. Returning players are usually around lvl 70, they come back, notice how much hell it is to get to end game, they leave to go play a different game. With lvl cap at 120, returning players will think, 50 levels behind, no one around. Yeah this game is dead.

    115-120 expansion does not apply to returning players that have been away for awhile, especially when player base is how it is with mid game population being almost nonexistent.

    Pay $59.99 for EQ expansion I'm not close to doing anything in, I'm not lvl 115. Pointless. Lvl 70 is 50 levels behind end game, 120.
    Pay $29.99 for GW2 expansion, I could have played back in 2014, I jump right into expansion, all is well, I fit in perfectly.
  19. The real Sandaormo Augur

    I understand trash clears to get to the next event but these time sink trash clears to get luck upgrade pieces are soooo lame. Please rethink this model. We clear these zones as a guild on raid nights and its just tedious, then you have to kill all the events. Give us missions or quests with a chance to earn them, don't make us waste all that time on raid nights.
    Yinla, Svann2 and Metanis like this.
  20. Xorsazis Augur

    I'd be happy if they just made Partisan and Mercenary tasks as group tasks instead of solo again.
    Seems kinda redundant running a group of 6 people through the same steps when it could just update the group task and move on. Someone always eventually misses a step and then you have to go back and catch them up.