Just out of curiosity, why would you assume that? Nothing has been stated saying it was either free or cheaper in price.
It's been a year since the last release. They told us long ago it would be a yearly-ish release cycle. I would not count on it being any cheaper than normal. It's much better than one year.... 2 expansions came out within like 7 mo of each other.
So it's a full expansion? Doesn't sound like it. Unless there is some really awesome upgrades in aa/spells, I'll definitely be skipping this one. New zones do nothing for me, I don't need a change in background pictures that badly lol. I just thought I read they were going to start releasing zones for free. Well ill have to see how great expansion is. If they put in new pets etc, then I'd buy it, but I don't see how without a level change. 6 accounts at $40+ monthly sub., think this expansion is going to help me make a decision quickly.
It sounds like staggered content is going to be the way they handle expansions from now on, at least for the indefinite future. Some expansions will get level caps, some won't. The "releasing zones for free" thing you probably misread as the staggered content being free to people who bought the expansion, like Shadow of Fear and Heart of Fear.
Today's expansions are staggered. You pay $40 for a year of new content releases. If you don't like expansions that don't increase level cap and update all spells, I assume you also skipped Velious, Luclin, LDoN, GoD, DoN, DoDH, PoR, TBS and UF? That's too bad.
I actually did skip 7 out of those 9 expansions. More so for the quality of content as a whole (and the feel of the game had changed) and less because they didn't have level cap increases and what not. But anyway, OP laid a nice little "I need to vent" trap in this thread. Very sneaky.
I've been saying for years I think this model is a good plan, after I read a suggestion from someone or another suggesting something like this. I know it doesn't work for everyone, but it keeps things coming over the year rather than just plopping down a whole expansion and as a bonus the devs don't have to deal with feedback and bugs from the entire expansion all at once. As to the AAs and such I know for others it is different but I play to experience content with my guild/friends in game. I am fairly neutral on the no level cap increase subject. It does delay the next hullabaloo about spell foci degradation though.
I wasn't setting a vent trap, just shocked they are charging full price or even charging. They don't make enough off of subs and market place items? I love this game, but I just don't really log in anymore. Not paying $250, to get the expansion for my accounts that's for sure lol. Maybe it will be really cool and I'll eat my words and buy it. And I also skipped several of those expansions you listed. Never skipped a level raising one, no matter how bad it was.
Biggest thing this expansion is going to be boring for most high end raiders, no lvl increase, stagnated raid gear, week or 2 at most and will be max AA again. I know some already they are looking at other games and then see what the expansion after this one coming out will be like. For those that have max AA and mainly log on for the raids, they will get bored fast. Though with me 3 boxing a lot, the merc AA's and gear will be interesting. And wondering if we will get reimbursed for our LAA we have got now. My SK has been max on them for over 10 years or so, past month been working on them for my mage then read that, was a lot of XP wasted going into it,
The expansion cost now is essentially like a Season Pass on Steam/console games. You pay once, when the initial expansion releases, and get access to all downloadable content throughout the year at no additional charge.
I'm not asking for anything. I already stated that I barely play anymore. Was hoping for something to look forward to, that might interest me again, but I don't see a reason to buy this expansion. I mean $40 is the price of a new game, for a few zones and aa? I just thought that this stuff was going to start being included in our subscription. My staying or leaving eq isn't going to matter. I will wait and see if it offers something fun, then maybe I'll buy it for a couple accounts. I also did not like the staggered release. Just felt like all my gear was constantly needing an upgrade and became too much work.
I thought the staggered release was done pretty well. seemed a bit fast between each phase, but there was plenty of content / features each time. gear was not a real issue. there was very little difference between tier 1 and tier 4 gear. and as stated the next expansions gear will generally be the same since there will not be a lvl increase.
if the new LDoN style missions are close to how LDoN dungeons were then id prolly pay more than $40 for my 5 accounts. LDoN's were one of my favorite things in eq when they were current
I haven't heard anything myself to indicate SoE is going to be only charging a subscription rate and you get all content included. That sort of defeats the entire free to play scenario they have set up (where you can still be various account levels + expansion costs are separate). So sounds like you greatly misheard or someone told you a big fat whopper of a lie. You pay once for the expansion and then multiple times throughout the year you'll get the next releases to that expansion at no cost.
Well, the good news is that folk who are new/returning and have been F2P should be able to buy this expansion and get VOA plus ROF included. Of course you never know maybe they will drop the price to 35$ and allow folk to buy in for 2 Krono.
i know a lot disagree on this but my favorite expansion to date was underfoot, becauseo f all the good stuff they did without the level increase to deal with too. the models are godo the zones are good the gear was tiered up from SoD, there was the return to the shawl, lotta raids taht no one finished the first week, progression to do, new aas altogether new spell lines altogether..i loved it, and at the time it was current i wasnt in raid gear was in gorup tank and dps gear (my druid got some raidstuff the second half but she retired from raiding that summer and was low enough aa the gear didnt make her uber lol) id taken a 3-4 months hiatus and though id log in and chat here and there i wasnt doing anything, until underfoot launched and enlivened my EQ again. my least favorite thing about UF though was that they did that stupid server merge in the middle of it and killedo ff half the population and guilds, convorteum was a steady mid 40s population every day, then merger and it hit 90s for a few days to a week, fighting etc, not long after back to 40s in zone, half the guilds died off, merged, or quit raiding in the next 2-6 months too, but server merges are another rant-thread.
Def. agree with you, UF was an expansion where you saw all the work they put into it. I guess some just have no eyes for that, if things don't fit their playing style. Just like they did put a lot of work into GoD, Abysmal Sea for example.. still puzzles me how some can prefer the relative easy going and linear design we have now.
