How about reloads? How would you like to pick a zone you haven't been to (at least not recently, or much in the past) and go to experience the design, the mobs, and the challenges that you may have missed and are no longer applicable to you? How about older end-game zones with raid content which you will never explore again (TBS, anyone)? Or what about just showing off your ability to navigate The Hole, Chardok, and Runnyeye to all those newer players? These questions are posed often about the 90% of the game gone-by-the-wayside, and the solution has been to wait on a new expansion, revamped zones, or make yet another progression server. The amount of work and time to make this a possibility, I'm sure, is immense; and it eventually finds itself among the rest of the outcast novelties when the loot, level of mobs, or challenge is no longer applicable to us. And I'm sure this wouldn't need to be a problem, except that there is so much game that is not played, and really never will be, at least not in-depth. Here is a solution that should be easy (at least easier than a new expansion, or even a revamp), appealing to players of all levels, play styles, and availability, bring back casual grouping, and make it worthwhile to re-visit all that old content. Timed instances of any zone in game prior to the Seeds of Destruction expansion. Wait, why is that fun, or different? Here is the good stuff: --Each zone has a Story-teller NPC that will grant your group/raid access to the instanced version --Minimum of three real players in a group --Mobs adjust in level (based on group's average level) to provide a challenge. --Keep level window of highest to lowest members at 15 level span --Mobs do not respawn --1-2 guaranteed named mob(s) for every 2 real players in group (min:1 to max: 6) --120 minute timers for a group, and 5 hours for a raid --1-2 raid mobs for every 3 groups in a raid instance (min: 1 to max: 6) --Certain boss mob spawns limited to raid instances only --Named mob loot table of group instances is equivalent to tier 1-2 (group) items of that level range --Loot table for raid instances equivalent to tier 1-2 (raid) of that level range --All named loot is no-trade --Lockout timers of 7 days for each group instance and 3 weeks for each raid zone instance to prevent over-camping --(optional) Point system to purchase items after completing many instances (points based on killing at least one named mob) So, again, no new zones, no new graphics, no new quests, no new spells, and no new mobs. No necessity to develop a point system for buyable loot (like LDoN, DoN, and OMM) although it can't hurt to add that in to ensure the success of the effort; and it would help to keep players involved and willing to group to gain those points, especially if you mixed in high point-cost unique items, illusions, ornaments, mounts, exp. potions, armor, etc. The real work involved would be to copy old zones and make instanced versions linked to them, and to create a loot table for level ranges to place on the named mobs. Additionally, mob types will need to be copied and adjusted for ac/hp levels and spell tables. I'm not a programmer or developer, but I imagine it can't be as much work as creating entirely new zones, mobs, graphics, loot, quests, etc., from scratch. It also won't kill end-game raid participation, as the loot tables won't equate to t3 and higher raid loot. The servers may feel a burden of simultaneous instances if it is that popular (but that means it's popular!) similar to the hay-days of LDoN. Feel free to hate and flame on my idea--or add to it--but I don't see this being a flop when it has appeal for end-game groupers and raiders, as well as the accessibility and time-frame for those with less real-time to play on a daily basis.
I'm gonna say, a developer will probably say it's way more involved than what you imagine, more so than just a revamp to a single higher level, because you have to optimize mobs, items, pretty much everything but the zone geometry and models to be appropriate for each level range, and that means continually having developer time spent on such zones every year with level increases. Most people would probably like the idea, at least those of us, that really liked LDoNs, and those were heavily petitioned to upgraded past 65 over the years, but have never been. So I don't see it happening. Also, if you take this idea farther along, you end up with an exponentially growing amount of developer time needed as new expansions, zones, and levels get added, unless you don't add any new zones. I'm pretty much for anything to make old content interesting and viable, but developer time is sparse and used for what has to be done. Look at how long it's taken to redo hotzones (supposed next month) which involves very little itemization and very little, if any modelling. Yther Ore.
Good points, though the cost : benefit ratio may be why those other ones are not updated, even with constant feedback and petition to do so. I would take an upgraded LDoN, and I'm sure thousands of others would be happy with it, but for how long? I think the expansion was fantastic, and though it was the release of GoD that took attention away, and the level increase with OoW that drove the last nails through the coffin, perhaps they believe that players were simply over it--even though I'd do them at level 100, many might say that it was too repetitive and the items were no longer worth the time investment. Hotzones don't ever have to change--though the repetition does kill me, and I hated when they put an old hotzone on a new list; but people go for the experience gain and the better chance to find others to group with. Mobs coding can be copied and pasted, as I'm sure they do, between mob classes across zones. Would it be that obvious if a kodiak in the Commonlands at level 93 hit awfully similar to a naeya from SL? And if the shadow wolf was eerily similar to that as well, would that matter too much? Not really. Casters would probably require the most work to make sure they are accurately written as the same type of caster with those spells, could they, with the sheer amount of higher level mobs, switch out what's under the skin?
I'd love any opportunity to go back and be a group cleric again. Recent end-game expansions have left me dreading even signing on because my only grouping options are grind groups. Even then it feels like charity to get accepted into a group instead of, or in addition to, a healer merc because clerics are still needed for raids and that's about it. I can gripe all day about the sad circumstances of playing cleric, but the point is that it would be nice to have something more casual than the intense and difficult group missions available in the new expansions. I wouldn't mind paying for the ability to play and reminisce in old zones with my main, and to do in a group with mobs my level. I think it would add some much needed enjoyment to playing my class again.
