If it were my game to create however I wish this is something I would do. The level cap right now is 100. I would create the world in such a way that there are zones designed for players up to level 120 or so. I would also always keep monsters in the game that are too difficult to be beaten by players at the current level cap. In other words I would keep the content ahead of the level cap.
Just to increase the danger and unpredictability of the game. The game is setup for grocers and farmers. People who don't love danger and hate to die. They got to breath some life into this game. The fantasy adventure genre appeals to adventuring souls who like the idea of living in a world full of danger and the risk of death at the hands of powerful magic users and incredible beasts. The world needs to be more dangerous. Having higher level content than the player is ready for is the proverbial dragon. I would do it for that reason and because I would always leave something to the players imagination. The world would never be completely discovered. Every secret would never be completely exposed. That's just one thing I would do for you players. I'd never let you reach the end of the world. In fact it would be beneficial to never know how much was left to explore and experience. That would be the game I would play against you. You players must push the limits of your skills and abilities. You will push to see the ends of the world and to know everything. It's my job to make sure that you can't do that but that your pushing against the limits what your characters can do does not go unrewarded.
These are called raids for a lot of people. Maybe not so much now that the final hero mission of a zone mirrors the raid mission.
So what you want is another GoD-style fiasco? Not to oversimplify, but this is what it sounds like to me, I'm not sure EQ could afford another one.
I have had some similar thoughts. Who remembers the hours spent xping in Dreadlands and the excitement of Gorenair wandering by. Or the Vengeful Skeletons in Halas, or the Sand Giants, or the Griffons, I think some zones should have 2-3 group open raid mobs just to keep people on their toes and provide another level of immersion in the game.
Rain of Fear expantion doesn't seem to be complete in my thoughts, there SHOULD be Teir 3 and Teir 4 zones with more content and more items to be had.
I remember the guards in The Overthere. Can not count the times the group would have to run to the zone in to skyfire.
What point does putting in content that can't be beat serve? All it does is cause people to avoid it. That and take time away from developing content that people would actually use
This. The expansion wasn't finished at launch as it was and you want them to waste time developing content nobody's going to use?
Are you arguing that you don't want the content to be ahead of the players? You are arguing that every monster in the game should be beatable, right? I know that it would baffle people to have monsters in the game world that were, lets say, level 100-150. "Why are these monsters in the game? Nobody can beat them!" I would indeed have zones that have extremely high level monsters in them. For example, in a mountainous outdoor zone that is primarily for level 100 players, I would place a mountain fortress full of monsters that are, lets say level 120-130, off the beaten path. It will be a big place that can accommodate many groups. When players are in that zone they will look up at that mountain fortress and wonder what kind of loot is in there. They won't be able to get it, yet, but it will be a mysterious place that no one can conquer yet. I'd do it just for the sake of adding mystery to the game. Mystery is an important ingredient in a fantasy game world. I would even look at some of these zones that currently are under used like the karana's for example. Some of those zones are immense. I would carve off a place in those plains for some new structures and monsters. I might use them for future content, for those at level 100 already or I might create something for level 80 players. Who knows! Imagination is the limit. There is no rule that says I can't create something new in an older zone.
No what is being stated is that players want content that they can do. No one wants to go to content that is impossible to do and will just get them killed if they try it. There is no point in making content and items that players will not be able to complete or get when the developers don't have enough time to do all the content they currently want to do. Not sure what your fascination with having content that is impossible to do or having a roaming mob that can kill off groups as it goes past them but those are not ideas that are good for the health of this game and would be a waste of the already limited developer time.
I guess i need to retract my statement, I stopped avoiding xolok today, our setup was me boxing mage/mage/bard/shaman + cleric merc + chanter friend. We brute forced it, high dps burn > xolok. no kiting necessary.. yet another anti-boxer roadblock obliterated. We didnt even have a single death rofl.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't see what's wrong with having content there, insurmountable to some and barely defeated (at best) by others, to fill the role of "something to look forward to?" (Original) Kerafyrm was never meant to be defeated, but that didn't stop people from doing it anyway. It was simply the full force and willpower of those with the drive to make it happen. Was it a generally happy occasion to pull through that mess with a victory? You bet it was! Granted, the circumstances are different when you have a ~200+ player massacre against a single opponent, but it still goes to show that something impossible years before was defeated long after its creation by people who wanted to actually make it happen.
One mob, The Sleeper which was intended to ALWAYS be unbeatable when created and only awakened once per server. That is a horrible example to use for the content the OP is suggesting. After The Sleeper was first awakened, it was clear that he was (at that time) unbeatable and intended to be such; which is immensely different from creating a signficant portion of zones (or even entire zones which are not going to be beatable by anyone for another expansion or two (and three expansions for most). The OP is not asking that content be made extremely hard for some, he is asking it be made impossible for everyone. I do not see even Raiders Decked out in the current top of the line RoF gear being able to take out content for level 120 groupers. As such the OP is asking for content that no one at all can do outside of raids; and I don't see many people raiding just to kill trash mobs. Think of the content the OP is talking about as having a zone with a normal size population and having the current day equivolent of what Tacvi "trash" mobs would have been like before GoD was retuned as the base population for the zone, each one generally taking multiple groups worth of people to kill and getting nothing for it. An occasional Roaming raid or raidish mob in a zone (ala Shadowhunter from WoS) or one NPC in an expansion that is not intended to be killed is fine, but having any significant amount of existing content actually intended to only be killable once players are higher than the current level cap is horrible design.
While I get the aesthetic appeal of having mysterious, unslayable beasts forever guarding regions beyond our reach, there is a less dev-intensive approach to expanding the borders of Norrath: use your imagination. In less romantic terms, what you seem to be asking is for next-expansion content to enter the game world prior to any boosts in player strength that would make it possible to explore/defeat it. I have to admit I'm not totally convinced this would inspire enthusiasm among the base, as opposed to frustrated indignation.
I'd like to see people take down the minotaur smasher in xorbb.. that red con npc that requires 4 separate people to complete his quest to make him go active. He makes the militia enforcer look like a joke.... Hands down the hardest npc in all of EQ (non instanced)
Can he even be attacked? I turned in some quest stuff to him and watched him just TEARING mobs apart, and I think I saw him hit 99% once or twice. Reminds me of the Mech Guardian in DSH, sorta.
