May is the worst month for TLP releases.

I agree 100% that May is a dumb time to release new expansions. I would be okay with may as long as Classic/Kunark go until like October. But then you run into the problem that the following year PoP would be released in the summer. So if they could push that back until September that would be cool.

Maybe rebalance raid difficulty.

Another change that would impact live servers and likely wouldn't make a major difference anyway.

I still think the key to making changes to TLPs lies in the AA system. These can be easily tailored so that they are auto granted by expansion and once a server reaches a certain expansion, they are gone all together.

How would that work? Would you be able to still earn AA experience and buy the aa outright? Seems like a system bound to be bugged or exploited.

I am guessing they are talking about 0 point AA that are auto granted based on the expansion for changing things on TLP servers and that they have no impact on a live server due to what level they get auto granted to. This isn't something that a player can chose to purchase or not.

As Warring said, I am talking about 0 cost AA that are auto granted each expansion. They would have zero effect on live because you can make the last AA granted in a specific path cause the AA to do nothing. I am going to use an easy example, but there are other possibilities.

Weakened resolve AA.
Level 1: All resists are reduced by 50. Auto granted in Classic.
Level 2: All resists are reduced by 35. Auto granted in Kunark.
Level 3: All resists are reduced by 15. Auto granted in Velious.
Level 4: All resists are reduced by 0. Auto granted in Luclin.

That is just an example, but would allow for easy changes to game play on TLPs that would have zero effect on live servers or even TLPs after a certain expansion. It also wouldn't take a lot of dev time or energy as you are just adding in an AA. The only effort would be in deciding on effects and tweaking them to something that is balanced.

Wrong, just take a look at threads like What expansion do you hop off the train?
It's great, just an open admission that the majority of the recyclers are very easy to please. Give them a new TLP with some gimmicky ruleset and they're happy. There's absolutely no reason to waste a lot of dev time on something that the majority of TLP player have no interest in.

I'm sure that were the devs to create something new and then do something like what they've done on live where the best leveling path is to do their progression that the howls and outrage would make the grinder contingent on live look like contented customers.

Considering the lack of AA space is a very real thing and is what leads to consolidation / pruning every expansion (because there is a finite number that can exist and we're perpetually there or just shy of being there), its nowhere near that easy.

We are moving to 64 bit in 2-3 weeks. That should alleviate that limit shouldn't it?

I think some are overestimating the things that moving to 64 bit will solve.

Quite possibly. I was under the impression that 64 bit would increase the amount of memory the game and servers can use. From a practical standpoint I just assumed that meant we would see things like higher limits on stuff. Maybe more AA, more people in a zone before it lags, more than 2 million plat for an item in the bazaar. Things like that. It could also allow for new graphics, but that has pretty much no bearing on the TLP world. At least I hope it doesnt' and more zones don't get the commons/freeport treatment.

We need a new TLP now. Ugh. Waiting until May is going to suck.

Somethings are hard coded and have been from day 1 of EQ, so changing the limits on somethings still won't be an easy change.

That said I will be disapointed if the lag isn't reduced as surely the extra bits will help with the processing of data which is causing the lag in the first place.

Pretty sure may was chosen to help bolster their summer time subscription numbers. Along with the fact, they have the release date down to a science when it comes to when expansions hit versus their new expansions for live and bonus xp/faction/sales etc. After so many TLP releases now, they had to have learned something by now.

I think the early unlock on expansions this time has thrown a wrench into it. Either that or they have decided the next TLP is going to be a super weird one like Agnarr. They have a new TLP and omens of war coming out in the same month.

Actually Mischief is the super weird server (all things being considered).

RMTers dream though.

By super weird I mean one that probably won't appeal to a lot of people.

You're one person. I know this may come as a shock but not everyone has the same opinion as you.

While it is true I'm one person and not everyone will have the same opinion as me, you said Mischief was super weird. It is super popular and probably will see less attrition than prior TLPs. I was thinking that, since the next TLP will probably have lower numbers, they may finally give the 2 or 3 people wanting PVP or something a chance.

Also, technically I'm six people, since I six box.