epac?

has there been any talk of a expansion from DB or has this company just left EQ to rot?

Three posts down in the News and Announcements forum.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/may-2016-producer’s-letter.232901/

Latest news we have is a new expansion in late fall so probably announcement in late august early september and release in november.

I see the mention of it but absolutely no indication of when this year or next. They only promised info this year not a release.
AFAIK they havent finished the data structure project and that would happen first if what has been told to date can be trusted. (heh)
See if they dont finish that one then the next release project would be seriously understaffed and you get another TBM. Doubt many are hoping for that... does that raise the probability? Perhaps

What happened to the twice a year campaigns direction?

They failed to finish one expansion in a full year.

mic dropped, EPIC reply. Game Set Match.

It wasn't eve an expansion they failed at - it was a campaign.

People complained so they went back to "Expansions"

Fail; they just relabeled there campaign an expansion.

This 100%... They had a meeting like 2 weeks before release and decided, " Wait ... we could just slap 'expansion' on this 'campaign' and those suckers will pay us 90% of our normal 'expansion' price. Then we can finish the other half for next year and make another 90% for 50% of the work? "

They announced the change to an UNDETERMINED amount of campaigns a year (never specifically said 2, but it was implied), a lot of people complained.

They then came out and said that they had made "so much" content for the first one that it was going to be a full expansion, then said if it wasn't finished they wouldn't release it, then released it unfinished right after.

AFAIK they still haven't officially stated "we are doing expansions and not campaigns" but instead just dropped all references to campaigns and instead talk about expansions. As if trying to pretend it never happened.

The optimist would say "well, they were going to release a small campaign and then changed their minds, so released what they had which was smaller than normal which is why they lowered the price by $5, and the next one will have a full year cycle to be normal sized".

I'm not an optimist when it comes to eq releases.

Expect similar content to TBM, some reused zones because zones and models are art and budgeted specifically, a revamp of an old raid zone or zones, level 110, standard aa line increases, familiar keyring, and probably 1 "major feature", i.e. some gear or heroic mission gimmick. And don't be shocked if the price goes back to $40. With the mod2 heroic changes expect new type 5s with 15-20+ added to heroics, to try and get people playing in the new content and buying the expansion sooner than later.

Oh, and expect another $150 version with an illusion you can't get anywhere else. Illusions are the only thing that will drive more than a few people to buy at that price point.

They said 2

You can also expect the beta for this expac to occur 2 weeks or so before planned release and require you to buy the expac to enter, so that you can experience regret for your purchase immediately rather than later.

Seriously, even the smallest Fallout 4 DLC has longer beta periods than EQ expacs at this point.

Lolol. This was one of the funniest things I've read today.

Anyhow, I really really really hope there isn't a level increase (and that putting Lv 110 caps on foci was just for waaaaay down the line). They will say the arbitrary cookie cutter levels are 'lots of content' and so when people complain 'you only gave us 4 zones' they can say 'BUT WE GAVE YOU FIVE LEVELS! (that took you a week or less to complete and the same spells with a % based power increase we copied and pasted)'.

So, when they release details, be very afraid of a level cap increase.

The writing is on the wall for a bump to 110. Rof was up to 100 with 100 focus. Cotf gave us no increase but focus to 105. TDS came out and we got the foreshadowed 105 cap increase. Tbm rears its ugly no cap increase but that ominous foreshadowing via gear focus yet again. If they want to increase it then so be it, but with Ngreth back and next shut down then maybe just maybe this next release will not only get finished but be worth of the title expansion.

CotF foci were capped at level 100 during CotF. The T2 foci were changed to a 103 max, but not until quite late into the expansion. TDS launched.

If I had to bet, though, I'd agree that there will likely be a level increase.

*sighs* oh well

Getting as bad as Anarchy Online... well not that bad but if this keeps up it could be.
Of course the complication of EQ is nothing like it was in that game, dam near had to use calculus to min/max gear a char in AO and not exaggerating by much.

ah yes you are right there i was thinking of the Burden of Truth helm focus not cot gear if i recall now. My bad =)

Ngreth Thergn
Developer
Yes, I'm back. Currently, I'm creating content.
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/ngreth-back-on-the-team.233064/