Consolidate expansions for the next TLP

Just a suggestion: The PoP/LDoN era is roundly considered to be way too long by the playerbase. Why not at least try consolidating on the next TLP and see how well it's recieved?

PoP+LoY+LDoN all release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 3 months).

DoN+DoD+PoR all release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 2 months).

TSS+TBS release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 3 months)

This consolidates all post-Luclin expansion eras that don't have new AAs to buy, so that every new unlock adds new AAs.

I guarantee it'll prevent a huge amount of the population drop-off that occurs on every server during PoP and the level 70 era. TSS+TBS is less crucial and more for consistency.

I consider myself lucky that my guild got through all of those eras relatively unscathed and now that we're in SoF we'll likely make it all the way to live, but other guilds weren't so lucky and many in my guild, myself included, were VERY close to our breaking points at various phases within those eras. For me late LDON and PoR were the most trying.

Yes, please.

So many people think the population dies off because GoD is a bad expansion, but it's actually one of the better ones nowadays. The population dies off because doing 4-6 months of Plane of Time makes people take extended breaks and then don't return.

Don't even wait for the next server. Make these changes for mischief/tb for the love of Zebuxoruk.

Seen these posts time and time again...you can go ahead and rope Classic + Kunark + Velious + Luclin all in there for about 3-4 months

I think the pacing on mischief/thornblade is almost perfect in terms of how long each expansion went (assuming you continue to reward loot at the same rate they have). I am wary of combining PoP/LY and LDoN - I think keeping LDoN separate but shortening it to just a month is the right way to go. Can't really speak to the later expansions you mentioned, but I think just compressing the unlock window across the board and accelerating the pace of play has been a really significant improvement.

Release PoR+TSS together.

DODH deserves some time in the sun.

PoP+LoY+LDoN all release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 3 months).

OoW + DoN all release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 2 months)

DoDH+PoR all release on the same day, an hour apart. Normal time window (no greater than 2 months).

Fixed it a little. Removed TSS + TBS.. because why bother with TSS at all when TBS gear is better? Just a clicky illusion from the top TSS bosses.

DoN really has 1-2 raids at the top spectrum and is complimentary to Anguish gear. Allows for farming Vish/Yar eyes for clickies before hitting DoDH.

PoR is to DoDH what DoN is to OoW, so same deal.

No one I've spoken to really enjoyed raiding LDoN on TLP's. It was something to do when PoTime was on lockout and to pick up some of the unique augs. Mixing those 3 together just makes a bit of sense.

First of all, TSS is an all time great expansion. In no way should it ever be paired with another expansion.

Second, DoDh is a solid expansion and should have it's own time. That being said, POR is a good complimentary expansion and is a direct continuation in lore. Therefore, DoDh gets 1 month alone and POR released for another 2 months. That's 3 months of that entire line. Cutting it by a month.

Same thing can be done with OOW and DON as DoN doesn't replace anything in OOW, but offers solid complimentary group and raid activities. Release OOW for 1 month, release DON and have those both run for another 3 months.

70s era now cut from 9 to 7 months.

No one should be subjected to two months of Por being the final expansion, especially on a server where expansions are bundled. That's cruel and unusal punishment.

Just delete it if you don't want to pair it with TSS.

As it is, if it is paired with TSS, TSS still gets its time to shine, because people are not going to go back to PoR unless everything in TSS is on lockout.

LDoN is scheduled to be much shorter (one Month) on Mischief & Thornblade than it has been on prior servers (2 months).

They also shortened Classic to 1 Month & Kunark to 2 Months for these.

I know some expansions are better pushed together, as LoY with PoP was but for others compressing them into shorter windows within the same level era probably works better for retaining the "feel" of progression and pushing too many together would detract from that.

I think Triconix's suggestions work better in that respect.

Your problem is your mentality. My suggestion still runs under the assumption that DP is the primary end zone with DK being complimentary to it. Nobody in their right mind will drop DK off their raid schedule exclusively for POR farming. I still view it as the DoDh era, but now people have access to DK with it. You can now receive the benefits of POR while focusing mainly on DoDh, unlike yours where POR would get completely ignored and people most likely wouldn't get any of its benefits.

Therefore, they arent "subjected" to anything. All I'm doing is giving people more options quicker while cutting the overall length of being stuck in an era by 2 months.

I would take any of these suggestions over the status quo.

OR…

Just unlock zones by level….

Any expansion with sub 50 content is open on launch for 2-3 months.
2-3 months later, any expansion with sub 60 content is unlocked, and focuses + Epic 1.0
2-3 months later, any expansion with sub 65 content is unlocked, and heroic stats are unlocked.
2-3 months later, any expansion with sub 70 content is unlocked, and epic 2.0 is unlocked.

And so forth.

That way ya get all races / classes unlocked at launch, and raid content is unlocked in order of expansion. IE at the level 60 tier you would need to clear VP to have Velious raid mobs to unlock, and then clear NTOV to unlock SoL raid mob spawns. If after the 2-3 month window you haven’t unlocked all the raid mobs, they all unlock when the next level tier opens up.

Frogloks, Drakkins, Berserkers would like a word

Drakkin would be unlocked at launch, according to that "plan" since TSS has sub 50 content.. all TSS would be there.

Berserkers would be unlocked at launch because Nedaria is ~30's-40's I assume?

Frogloks would be unlocked because most of LoY would be sub 50 content.

It's kind of a junky/janky plan though, because on launch you'd have:
Original
Kunark
Velious
Luclin
PoP
LDoN
LoY
GoD
OoW
DoN
DoDH
PoR
TSS
TBS (maybe)

Then at 60 you'd get:
TBS (if not above)
SoF

Then at 65 you get:
Nothing

Then at 70 you get:
Nothing

Then at 75 you get:
SoD

Then at 80 you get:
That's right, NOTHING

Then at 85 you get:
UF
HoT

At 90 you get VoA, maybe and every 5 levels kinda sticks a few together but sort of flows with previous timelines.

It really doesn't work well. It would be neat if it could be done just unlocking the zones attributed to said level marks, but that's also a nightmare

The idea (not fully evaluated) is zone unlocked by level tier. So while you may have access to low level zones from GoD which are sub 60 zones at launch, the raid zones wouldn’t be until 65 was unlocked. An easier example solely for demonstration would be where Plane of Justice would be available in level 50 content, Disease / Nightmare at 60, and Valor+ type zones not until 65+.

Raid mobs in those zones would not spawn until the level tier, so you could avoid something where open world like RC / Doomshade might be accessible at 50, but not spawn until 60. Or Gore wouldn’t pop in DL until 60 was unlocked.

Granted it’s not fully vetted, and I acknowledge there’s more work than may be worthwhile to actually achieve it

Could split things up a different way so its not a massive content dump at basically the same moment.

1. Legacy of Ykesha opens when any group defeats Rallos Zek the Warlord, and Lost Dungeons of Norrath opens when any group defeats Quarm. PoP + LoY + LDoN is 3 months.
2. Dragons of Norrath opens when any group defeats Overlord Mata Muram. OoW + DoN is 3 months.
3. Prophecy of Ro opens when any group defeats The Master. DoDH + PoR is 2 months.
4. The Buried Sea opens when any group defeats Beltron the Shade King AND any group defeats Lethar's Final Stand. TSS + TBS is 3 months.

It was sorta nice when players had _some_ agency on when the next expac would open, especially for these mini expacs that only add a few additional raid targets. Obviously in today's day and age, each of the above would happen all but instantly, but LoY, LDoN, DoN, PoR, and TBS don't really add much to the game compared to the previous "main" expansion.

I'd have to imagine the technology is still there from Combine and Sleeper to allow expacs to open when an in game action is completed, even if the game has no idea when that action is done. The only thing new that would need to be added is what happens if for some reason the server bands together and decides not to kill a specific target in the time frame, such as not killing The Master for 2 months.

I also still believe servers should always open with Classic, Kunark, and Velious open and 4 months later Luclin is available, but that's just me.

TBH the only way we will likely ever see all the available races & classes in at the start of a new TLP is on something like a level-locked progression server, I think it may happen one day.