Can we please talk about the next expansion...

Campaign or whatever you want to call it. Seriously, can anyone fill me in on the development can't find much if anything and we are almost at the end of the first quarter. I'm not interested in you silly TLP. I want to progress my character on live.

RoF 2.0 please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's gonna be YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGA!

And this time give us more than 2 months to enjoy Teir 4. That is all. Thank you!

I'll tell you one thing I miss - the use of the journal (not quest journal) to give lore bits in the lead-up to, and shortly after the release of, expansions. That stopped being used around . . DoN or thereabouts?

• For those of use that are unable to complete the missions due to difficulty prior to the end of an expansion, it would be swell to get a summary of the game's storyline updates as expansions update the game.
• This is not an indictment of mission difficulty, I just choose to play the game solo/duo with a friend, so CoTF (Tower of Rot 2 and Argin Hiz 2 . . . though we recently were successful duoing AH2) and TBM (every zone's final mission) are incomplete and I don't have an in-game way to get the information I would otherwise get in those missions.

As far as the expansion itself goes, I suspect it will be a level-increase expansion. Whether or not it is, I sure hope we get the spell lines back that were so rudely taken away during the TDS-TBM cycle (there were several spells omitted for . . . reasons unknown).

• Between TDS and TBM, my class got roughly 40 spells/discs, of which I only ever have a use for 23 of them (and half of those only very rarely).
• 8 or so of my spell/disc lines existed in the 96-100 range but were inexplicably discontinued and have no level 101-105 equivalent (almost all of which I use regularly) . . . not to mention older lines that were previously discontinued but would be well-served to receive an upgrade (level 69, 70, 75, 90, among others).
• Then someone got caught in some sort of timewarp and decided that the expansion that gave us 95%+ of the spell lines (TDS) would drop spell gems rarely, while TBM drops about 700 spells per chest.
• Summary: they discontinued spell lines, but they got rid of the wrong spell lines. If they need to save space/development time, how about they take the time to see often spells/discs are used in order to determine which are to be upgraded.
• In addition: I'm not a raider - but if I were, I would submit the additional argument that older spell/disc lines are difficult to get to rank 3 since a current-content version does not exist.

I have no comment on the content/items/quests/missions, etc., as I have lost faith that any of that will ever work properly for the current expansion. Maybe if TBM gets polished/finished, I'll think about the future in those areas. CoTF was small, but it had a semi-legitimate reason in that they implemented the whole new system of heroic adventures that were relatively well done.

• Then, the only new system with promise in quite a number of years was basically discarded during TDS (the heroic adventures were crap and have no variability even approaching CoTF-level).
• Further, the system got flipped off in TBM . . . the heroic adventures are improved in the variability within each mission, but they took away most of the reason to replay them:
  • the bulk of currency needed to deck yourself out is gained doing the progression,
  • the chest loot is so limited/not different than what is on the vendors, and;
  • the collectibles are so rare as compared to prior expansions that one cannot reasonably expect to "farm" them by repeating the quests.

I really hope they discard this crazy armor system from TBM. It made everyone into a cookie-cutter version of everyone else (other than the icons/names).

I wonder how many old zones they plan on repurposing this expansion? Sure saves time mapping and learning how to get around.

I've always wondered why they don't redo all of PoP like the few Velious zones in RoF. Probably would save a lot of development time and I am sure the X-pac would be better regarded than the last few we got.

They need to disregard TBM style of gear. It was a flop. Gear with full stats - that way everyone can tell what an upgrade is.

iirc of the new zones they have "done" like 3 or 4 of them seem to be basically RoF style, while at least 1 is a "modern day" revamp (like what the zone would look like in the now year of EQ instead of when it released during Kunark)

I don't like nor dislike what they did in TBM. Though I think their sole goal of TBM was to streamline the 75 - 105 experience and they succeeded. I don't think we'll see gear like what we saw in TBM again as I feel they accomplished what they wanted to accomplish with the X-pac (ultimately giving people raid equivalent gear for levels 75 - 100).

They can also get rid of the idea of raid scaling. I know many of us like to go back with smaller raids and play through the content. The end result is lack of replay value. Just another reason to skip to the end. Besides, who wants to do the same raids for 30 ish levels.

That I definitely agree with. I don't understand raid scaling at all - there simply just aren't enough people around to raid at anything but max level. Most guilds out there don't even raid with a full roster most of the time.

I'm curious how many raids have taken place in TBM below max level

I'm guessing that raid scaling was a proof of concept for TLP needs.

Well if raid scaling works and they would like to incorporate it into the game more I am sure scaling up older raids would be interesting for a lot of newer players. Kinda like my aforementioned revamped PoP idea

I really like the TBM gear - it's the first time in a long time I felt like had a choice in what gear to get, and could make a difference in said choice. I agree that some of the mod 2's are still bad on TBM armor (group gear), but that's besides the point. I'd be happy as long as they maintain the type 5 heroic augs.

The first rule of the next expansion is there is no next expansion.

Agreed. Still waiting for something from Daybreak that will make any sense of the raid scaling and time wasted on it. Fast leveling at low levels, no new players mean we were never going to see level 75 scaled raids or level 80 scaled raids.

The only thing I can think of would be if they started scaling a whole expansion somehow. Believe it or not there are still many players out there playing that are not level 105. Giving them a reason to buy an expansion might be a good idea. That being said I doubt Daybreak has the staffing needed to do something like that and more then likely it would lead to another TBM style disaster. And I really don't think they are doing this but at least it would be a way to rationalize scaling.

As someone else said though its probably something for the TLP servers they tested out on us.

When it comes to scaling raids I NEED to believe they did it for some other reason then the stated one.. they were asking if it could be done so they did. If that is not a smoke screen for the real reason it's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. Sorry devs if you were forced to do it for no reason other then that.

You can't find anything because there isn't anything to find. We only know, from Holly's most recent Producer letter, that said: "The expansion for this year is well under way and looking incredible on the art front as well as design. We are really jazzed about where our new adventures will take you, and we’re excited to see what you think when we are ready to share more!". That is all the information so far.

They do not typically release expansion information until mid-to-late summer, at Fan Faire (when they used to have it at least). I do not know if they plan any earlier releases of information this time, since there is no Fan Faire anymore, or if they will hold to around that timeline and have an EQ LiveStream where they have a similar kind of presentation that they discuss the expansion. We'll have to wait and find out.

And you believe her?

Just like the last expansion wasn't a campaign.

She very cleverly ended the bold text right before it says "on the art front".

The expansion for this year looks incredible.... on the art front.

In other words all she is saying is the X-pac looks pretty. =D

That's all I liked about last expansion, tds, was the art. Let's hope they dont equate tedious with fun. We don't need the world's largest expansion, just something fun and somewhat challenging.