New expansion in September? LOL, srsly?

No more forced tier content please. Save the final tier if you must but this staggering only adds problems it doesn't fix or alleviate them. There is no way for you guys to design content at the pace that some people consume it so don't just throw hurdles out to throw hurdles out as its almost worse the initial problem of plain early burnout from easy content so everyone can win when its current.

You want to keep people engaged even if its with smallish items that require heavy time sinks, not force feeding them tier after tier. More augs or quest lines like "Stone of the Landing", "Stone Tear", "BiC", "Shawl", "Class Weapons". Long drawn out quests that require a lot of work for some reward. Be it useful clickies, augs, illusions, etc. You just need to make sure these items hold value to each class equally or make the reward have an option list so classes can pick what is best for them. Like "Stone Tear" could be defense or twincast or heal amount or + damage, defense for all means most classes won't be bothered as it holds little value to them even if it was + 100 defense as they die in a single round regardless. Great idea but didn't take all classes into consideration equally even if everyone has defense. "Stone of the Landing" type aug next expansion requiring all quests from that expansion to power up to the best shield aug then maybe back to charm the following expansion. "Class Weapons" would have been a great idea if they were implemented with some class consideration and weren't tuned to be little benefit at all besides stats. Tune the class weapons to have unique procs and effects for each class (don't lump archtypes with the same effect and proc) tune the damage to be worthwhile even if its an entire expansion. Catering to class it is for is huge here as every class is so unique in most cases, item type, focus and proc need to be tailored to the class.

I see a lot of angry people getting upset over a game. I can be guilty of it, when I do I try to sit back and take two or three breaths and try to put things into perspective. Then I start enjoying it again despite some all of the flaws that EQ has.

Ok, well perhaps the beta for the next expansion could start some time in September. There is no way they can release an entire expansion in September... there is just not enough time.

If they are going to stagger content like this they need to slow down exp, maybe even release a few levels at a time so there is a reason to exp every time there is new content released. The tiny increases in gear upgrades aren't enough and bring back proper quests with proper quest rewards.

Pretty sure ... that cancel button start looking good ...

Stop this stupid model.

Launch 1-3 at the beginning and then T4 later like others said.

They are going to have to start staggering level increases with the content/AA's. It only makes sense. Instead of being allowed to jump 5 levels on day one. I can see a staggered 4 tier model that allows 1 level per tier release and then allows two on the final tier.

So, we're going back to two expansions per year again?

I'm not a raider or an end-game player, but wouldn't it make more sense for you end-gamers to still be working on an expansion when the next one comes out? That way you won't have to complain about having to farm the same stale content for months while waiting for the next one. Why do you have to finish one expansion and have it on farm status before the next one comes out? Just curious.

If the content is going to be staggered again (which was not the worst idea IMO) - for the love of the Nameless, release the tiers during winter and spring, not during summer.

I used to look forward to new expansions. This new T4 zones look HORRIBLE!! Are these zones they created 12 yrs ago? Gloomy dark caverns with decade old mob graphics. I can't even imagine leveling all my toons up from 100 to 105 anytime soon. I had to re-gear my toons with each new tier release and now again with T4. Only to do it again in another few months while having to level all my toons to 105 and get a ton of AA(most of which are the exact same thing I have now, but won't work with the next level). I think my EQ days are numbered unfortunately.

The staggered release system is pretty terrible to say the least, we dont know when we re getting what until last minute, we can't plan anything, end content is very short lived, it s just silly.

Awesome, sign me up for beta, 180 LoN packs down and still no merc skin, could be my last chance!

Level cap increase to 110 + 5k new AA's please!

Nothing wrong with staggered release just with the timing of the releases. Tier 3 needed to be out in Feb, and Tier 4 needed to be out in May.

Not sure where you get that idea that they shouldn't have had them.

I like staggered release. Keeps things interesting while we learn about new content all the time. Most of the times I've taken a break, it was halfway before the next expansion and I was bored. This is because I raced to the last zones and got the best stuff, and barely even knew about the early tier stuff because it wasn't valuable.

Also, I'm always game for a level increase. I know it adds a lot of cycles in terms of spells/discs to add, but it also opens up older stuff to be more soloable (I enjoy playing with some old content here and there). If spells/discs were maybe trimmed down a bit, and instead of offering 3 ranks of each and having a few completely useless lines, maybe it wouldn't be such a hurdle.

Staggered content is fine, but I HATE feeling like I am constantly having to upgrade my equipment on all my characters. It's like I can't just enjoy what I have for any decent amount of time, without getting behind the curve. I know you don't NEED to upgrade, but the point of the game is to get your character as strong as you can.

You can see how this staggered content effects peoples mindset by looking at the FV server. The prices on gear is WAY lower than it ever has been for new/top end items. It's like no one wants to buy anything, because they know that in a month or so, something better will come along. I am doing the same thing, not buying anything until I know that nothing new is coming to replace it anytime soon.

Would you buy a new car, if you knew every few months a slightly better model was coming out?? You know one is coming next year and that's fine, you will have the best for awhile at least and it will hold it's value much longer. Otherwise you would end up with a severely depreciated auto and everyone would be too scared to purchase one.

The last few expansions shouldn't have had? What would we be doing then, just gear inflation and not mobs? I guess you could with some careful execution just increase new expansion's mob dmg and corresponding boosts in gear but you really think not being able to xp for a few years would not have killed the game? Even using the argument that you could still have aa increases would have only gave us tiny amounts of time to actually gain xp, with the level increases and aa the majority of hard core are max'd the middle tier are pushing 5 to 8 k aa i would imagine, which is really all you need above that is mostly fluff if you spent aa correctly. Having my bards wis max'd has not helped him not die..

As to the op, it really seems that the top tier raiders would prefer to have it all out there race thru and be finished a couple months max out of every year's expansion cycle. But as that is such a tiny portion of not only the raiding but the entire eq universe you would think they could see the forest <more players playing more> over the tree's < small groups of raiders finishing content and getting bored> since the forrest is where money comes in to soe for content,upkeep and any need they have to continue funding Everquest. It's also the only place they're going to find replacements as members do .. and god knows i dont know why people do it, quit playing eq for either a short time or again i dont know how you do it but some even forever

My normal group while not super hard core do play everynight for a couple hours except for raid nights and we've finished all the regular quests and group missions and were still working on hunter tasks in the originally released zones. We'll probably move to working on the new zone tasks and missions interspersed with hunter in the older content as population, camp's and such are available as the new zones thins out. If september was an actual release date for a new content release i'm pretty certain we'll be able to finish in the next month or two so i'm not really seeing what the problem is for the majority of eq players.

Now the real problem conundrum or whaterver you want to call it would be to me. In the past the highend conquered and geared up till they had nothing else to do but complain there was not enough content. Now the higher end still blasts thru content but isn't able to just move to the top tier as fast as they can and farm those raids till bored till tears. I'm sure you get bored with raids that you've beaten dozens of times but having more zones sooner really doesnt remove that boredom does it. It would seem to only shorten your actual time that any expansion is useful rather than extending it. Here it is 9 months since rof launched and your not logging in just alts to play or prodding your members to log in so you can redo raid x for the 20th time. Tonight you'll be doing new content new raids and getting someone new items to wear, sure for the top 10 it'll be finished this week but isnt it nice to have a reason to log in?

I think of it like computer parts. Whatever I buy will be outclassed tomorrow. But, that trend will be the same tomorrow as it is today. If the upgrade isn't that big, save your dkp and hold out a little longer.

Kelefane, the most prolific Chicken Little in online gaming history
-VS.-
Everquest's PR team which most of the time seems like it doesn't exist, and when they do come out of the woodwork they produce convoluted and confusingly vague statements.

Who wins? Tin-foil hat, every time.

I think the majority of the EQ community likes staggered content as you state. The upper tier raiding guilds do not, but they are a minority of the playerbase. However, they are a vocal majority on these forums so it seems like everyone is complaining when in reality a small percentage actually is. Overall, its a good move.

In the end, everyone will get used to this and adjust. Someone will state next year (and every year afterwards) that staggered content is the reason EQ is dying, blah blah blah, along with easymode EQ, and the tooth fairy.

I think that if the only joy you derive from Everquest occurs in the time between when a best-in-slot item for your toon drops, and lasts only about a nanosecond past the time you aug it and update your Magelo, that you need to reconsider your priorities.

That said, some of the most fun times I ever had in EQ was at the level 60 level cap in Velious when there were no AAs to earn, and I had all the gear I expected to get, and just went around dungeon crawling when there was absolutely nothing in it for my character.