The summer slump is so well known due to the fact that it has always been around. Releasing it all in one shot like in the past has not stopped guilds from blazing through it all earlier in the year and being completely bored by July 4th. T4 being released right now doesn't reduce RL priorities that summer tends to bring about. It is easier to work on my house when it is sunny and warm with daylight until 10:30pm.
Who is working on T4 if the developers are working on the next expansion to have stuff to show off for the Fan Faire?
Then we'd be paying for expansions twice a year for essentially what we have now. I prefer having the entire expansion at once. It allows me a better chance to plan out what I want to work on.
Only need 1 or 2 devs if it's only going to be 1 T4 zone. They've said they're going to continue with this delayed content release nonsense which means they only have to come up with half an expansion again by the time it's due and then work on the remaining content (AA's, spells, zones) later. Too bad this time people know the plan and can just wait until it's all released before purchasing (if they even bother at that point) so they can get their proper upgrades instead of being strung along for 9 months. No way this works a second time.
I would guess that T4 beta will start SOON™, due to the fact that some files have already hit the test patcher. If I were to estimate the timeline of the devs, beta will start very shortly, and they will plan the content launch for directly after EQLive (probably with open beta previews at EQLive for attendees).
It wouldn't surprise me if they give a decent size upgrade to the t4 raid loot to "incentivise" people to come back to play who wouldn't normally during the summer months. Remember this is a subscription based MMO and they want u paying all year round so maybe they think staggered content release will achieve this ?
The gear isn't the problem its the "Monte Hall 'ism" in gear that people have come do expect maybe didn't happen to some peoples satisfaction. I think that isn't the problem. they don't need to hurry tier 4 out, but for the high end raiders maybe they could come out with a couple more tier 3 events, make them hard. Problem is, you make it hard, people complain, you make it easy its done in a night or two. I say make 'em a bit harder. The hard core raider should really be less worried about gear, then a good challenge. Seems there are few in between anymore, but just my 2c
Guild invite, unless of course you are planning to exclude me, but then who would make the maps with Caudyr?
Ah, but they may not pick your guild this time. Unless you want to ASSUME. Of course, it's sorta fun when nobody has maps yet too, so it wouldn't be a tragedy.
I think they should add like a guild level system. Beat a raid and earn GUILD xp instead of regular xp. Once a guild reaches a certain level, they can no longer request the "normal" version of a raid, they can only do the hard version, but the hard version yields more loot (Like +1 armor core, +2 regular look and +2 spells, along with an increased chance of the rare drops (burden of truth)). Or you could do it based on achievements. If you've cleared the expansion, all raids requested go up in difficulty with higher loot rewards, to make farming go faster =P) Uber guilds would level faster, and get locked out of easy mode. Casual guilds would continue to be able to run the normal events. It would be win win!
Those guilds would then have the option of deguilding a character to request a regular raid and then retag them after.
And this would require them making a hard mode version of raids, which they have already said they do not have time to do.
Yea, I can see that being a problem, but still a cool thought I think So put a lock out timer on requesting raids after you've been detagged? It's not a particularly difficult exploit to fix.
Creating entirely new raids and even loots may take time, but I wouldn't think it would take much to cut the character limit from 54 to 36 and change the chests to have more of the same loots in them.
1) 36 players does not make a raid hard mode when the raids are easy to begin with, as shown by SoD. 2) Restricting raids to 36 players makes the bench that much bigger and ultimately HURTS guilds instead of helping them, as shown by SoD. 3) Giving more of the same loot that guilds are already drowning in, will not help anything.
Beimeth speaks true words. Hardmode via "raidsize 36" showed its failure during SoD and I certainly hope it will never raise its ugly head again.
For us what put the hard in hard mode on a 36 person raid is dealing with the drama of sitting 18 people when your guild is designed around 54 person raids.
By all means if you don't want there to be a Beta so no one has a chance to see the content ahead of time, be my guest, it will be...interesting...to say the least. At least then I can set my AFK message to "No Beta, no maps, don't ask" and not have to worry about it.
