Only they can say for sure but I'd wager the time invested by DPG on the level increase spells we get in an expansion expends a massive amount of time only to annoy the playerbase.
going downhill since 2001? So, going down a "hill" for 20 years...... Humans can climb UP Everest in 10 weeks or less, so this "hill" we have been going down for 20 years could be around 100 times taller than Everest (29,031 feet or 5.5 miles). That's around 2,903,100 feet or 549.83 miles For comparison. The tallest mountain on Earth is Mauna Kea (from base to mount not above sea level) at 35,000 feet or 6.63 Miles The tallest mountain in our Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars, it's around 16 miles high. The crust of the planet earth is around 21 miles deep. Earth's atmosphere is about 300 miles (480 kilometers) thick, but most of it is within 10 miles (16 km) of the surface. Some "hill" we've been descending here. Just for a laugh, here's how Olympus Mons the 16 mile high mountain would look if it were placed on the continental USA Now imagine a "hill" that was 34.46 times taller than that!! The ISS orbits at an average distance of around 248 miles above the surface of the earth, it would have to navigate around the waistline of this "hill" or risk crashing into the side of it as the top is 301.83 miles above its orbit. That's the "hill" EverQuest has declined up to now, just under half of it is in space!
I have to disagree with you I don’t think the majority the player base is annoyed by the increase in levels. in many ways it is the name of the game. Even look at TLPs the biggest player drops are long level increase gaps.
I wish they did increase level each expansion. I love those exstra levels. I find new levels much more fun than just staying at same level with new spells and gear. Please have level increase each expansion.
I was thinking, move all the spells/discs to level 116/117; but then make rk2 require level 118/119, and rk3 120. Could then steepen the leveling curve, without locking out all the basic utility abilities.
One thing I'm hoping for is that they don't overuse movement ability immunities again. They introduced fun and useful abilities when they gave players the ability to fling mobs around, and do things like lure. Then they decided to take a sledgehammer to them for... reasons? I'm not entirely sure. It doesn't increase challenge at all. I had to play my cleric to help with raids shortly after the first time they decided to take an axe to those fun abilities, and the amount of frustration by the decision to axe them made it much easier to not miss playing my bard at the time. Then later they improved it a bit but added some mob immunities. But the problem is they over-use those immunities to a ridiculous degree. Not every raid mob should be immune to them. Not most normal mobs should be immune to them. It doesn't increase fun. It doesn't increase challenge. It just cripples fun abilities that were a good idea, but that for some reason they backtracked. I can't think of a single exploit being able to move mobs around allows off hand, except avoiding crippling rubber banding lag that is pretty common in some raid instances. (Edit: I just remembered several instances they are useful in some current content raids, so I exaggerate. I do think the immunities are overdone though.) More on the topic of lore I'm terrible keeping up with stuff so people may have figured it out by now, but I really really hope this leads to that mysterious fire temple-looking dead end in Shadeweaver's Thicket being used. I know there are various opinions for and against revisiting places, but I'm all for it especially if little mysteries like that get expanded.
Would love to see the Grey be a T3 zone with skyfire drake, roaming named mobs and super vacuum mechanics, while having significant gear and exp rewards. Difficult open world zones are underrated and underrepresented in recent EQ.
I think this could be a lot of fun if the super vacuum mechanic disabled mana/end regen in areas with mobs, you'd murder stuff for sweet loot until your group ran out of resources and then head back to the safety dome to med back up you'd be mechanically encouraged to play efficiently and carefully as opposed to just burning the crap out of everything and medding after
C'mon, drakes in vacuum ? Aerodynamics in an absense of air ? Not drakes, some high-flying ethereal coteries, with a propulsion system other than wings, perhaps blood jets coming out of their ... manastreams ! Ethereal manastreams propel them!
I'd like to be on the SSRA snake side this time. Make SSRA city sort of like Kael where you can raid it or earn snake faction and quest there. They should also do something along the lines of the Ahkeva civil war...two opposing factions you have to pick from. Keep the vampires, lose the Vah Shir and none of the stupid aliens please!
There is a snake city already, in RoF Chelsith Reborn https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zone.html?zstrat=914 There are quests you can do for some snake residents in there. It wouldn't be new. A city full of Akheva with quests and mobs to kill ? That would be new and exciting. Snakes ? Not new. Just skin them, snakeskin items are always in fashion.
If i had my choice it'd be those underground burrowing centipede things that'd be a pest like the skyfire drakes.
Come on Skuz, everyone knows EQ has been going downhill since March 17, 1999. Maybe even sooner than that.
TBH, they should just stop making up new names for the same spells. Use the base name and add a roman numeral to the end. Instead of Surety > Righteousness > etc, just call it Aegolism XII and be done with it. I just don't see the value that is added to the game by creating all new names and if it takes as much time as they say it does, I feel it's time wasted.