Lateral content expansion TLP?

4. Really? If they made a second level of crushbone and its in line with how you imagined it to be you will get an extended and renewed feeling of nostalgia. Thats why people started releasing 2D side scroller games and they were a big hit even though people never played them before. If they do it and its a hit, all the people who want pantheon will come back, and if its a hit then they can start on kunark, velious, luclin expansions and probably get even more subs than they have on live. Creating content in the style of classic would be cheap and easy, only hard part is the thought that would go into it to make it right.

Still not nostalgia.

Also, this is simple logistics. What is more worthwhile for a developer and company looking to make money: Creating content that will assuredly be used by a majority of the population for an entire year (live expansions) across a dozen servers or creating content that will be used for just a portion of the population of two servers (maximum) for maybe 1-3 months of the year for 5-15 levels of the first 50 levels of a character (few hours max) until they move on to another zone? The answer to me is clear and obvious: the former.

No company in their right mind would decide to use vital, finite resources to develop content that will be primarily used for maybe 1 month of the entire year when you can be developing content that will guaranteed be used for 1 year for the entire population of a dozen servers. There is no way creating crushbone 2.0 will attract more revenue streams than a brand new expansion which btw TLPers also buy for benefits such as mounts and bags! They are literally producing content that will be purchased by players of EVERY SINGLE SERVER when they develop new expansions rather than a portion of the population of 1-2 servers. Not a single person who plays only live will pay money for a level 25-35 crushbone extension.

If they make classic 2.0 most of what you said is wrong, and it has a chance to be a bigger hit than live entirely

and i say again

To make this old style content it would cost a fraction because its low poly, low texture resolution, and the stats are lower accross the board.

Why do lower stats mean lower dev costs? That doesn't make any sense

Gets made alot quicker. To craft a zone like guk with low poly and low textures it would probably take 10% of the time it takes them to craft a live xpac dungeon.

I don't think you know how development actually works, but sure, you can keep thinking that.

It does not work like you think it does.

The very same tools are used to create art assets & zones regardless of how they look, in many ways creating a modern zone is actually quicker than trying to create one that fits in with existing lore and architecture.
The modern tools are easier to work with than the old tools that were used to build the old original zones anyway.

It takes longer with the revisit zones because they are rebuilding an old zone with the new tools and trying to replicate that old zone's appearance so there are certain criteria to meet that would not apply to a zone being built that has much more creative freedom allowed.

Err. Just let that sink in for a minute. You really think it costs them more to put higher stats on an item? Like, they have to pay per hit point or something?

No just easier to balance an item with 10 total stats over 10000

Not really.

A hallway in classic is literally 2 flat walls and a flat roof and floor, i guarantee you its easier for them to make a dungeon with all 90 degree angles and a low res texture

If that's what you're looking for, play the original Wizardry. You'll be much happier.

This is gonna get made whether you like it or not.

Maybe on a , but not here. Keep dreamin'

My take, is that some of the old dungeons look that way, was because they had limited tools. A dungeon like that could be made in a very primitive editor.
Nowadays they have more advanced editors, where more complex dungeons are possible, but that doesn't mean that ultra simple dungeons are a hundred times easier to make than a pretty dungeon with current editors.
A dungeon is much more than just its geometry! They need to do loot-tables, monster population and quests, and they need to make sure it is neither too difficult nor too easy.
And finally they need to make sure it is fun(thats the hard part!)

As a live player, where's my motivation for this? Someone earlier in this thread, mentioned scrapping a new expansion in favor of making new low level TLP content. I'm certainly not going to buy an add on for this. Why? No xp, no loot of value. Maybe some TS mats, but that's it. Destroying low level content isn't motivating.

Daybreak wouldn't be getting my $300.00 + dollars for the 2 new expansions I buy for my toons. Nor would they get money from the many other live players who will buy 1 or more expansions for their crew. That revenue will be lost. Players will drift away because there's nothing left to do at the end game. Daybreak loses and we all lose. But yeah, 2 to 3 weeks playing in some add zone is worth ruining EQ.

TLP's will not be getting new add on zones. There will be new rulesets, maybe even some unusual quirks, but the content will be the same stuff that's been beaten to death 1000's of times. Embrace it, or go find a new game.

At SoE the team did in fact even make a sidewards expansion with Legacy of Ykesha that was made up of zones mostly set at prior to the current era level ranges - though that was a one-of-a-kind and I do not expect to ever see similar again.

Eventually I do expect a couple of *new* zones to be built that are aimed at the TLP crowd, nothing even remotely close to what the OP suggested with a TLP Expansion at the cost of a Live one, but there is certainly precedent for the dev team adding in extra zones..

GMM was the most recent add-in zone, created for the anniversay, then there was Veksar, Sol C, and others.
Add-on zones are absolutely possible, especially if the team sees continued investment and new hires.

I promise for them making straight walls and floors is much much easier than crafting curvature in their editor, im almost certain that its as easy as making a box and sizing it in MS paint. And they just have to do that like 1000 times and they have a dungeon. Think of how easy it is to size a box in ms paint and leave it, then size another box that connects, thats how easy it is to make a classic dungeon, then they just add some doodads and sconces and its done.

No joke it might actually take one guy one day to make the geometry of an entire dungeon in the style of classic. Then its just texturing and things like picture frames and torches. Maybe a 2D spider web which is again as easy as place it and size it.

And if you add a kobold dungeon to rival guk in innothule you just place in the current kobold model with a different skin, and to make the skins again might take 2 hours.

Spoken like someone who has never done this sort of work for a living.