What do you want to see in the next xpac? What mistakes should be avoided?

I used to play a dirge from middle of EoF to CoE start, and even back then about 50% of my DPS was auto attack, with RoK and mythic represented it's grown up to 60%, then proc'and only after - CA's. There was lot of feedback that we need more balance between AA and CA's. Game have to many stats right now, and some of them is just content blocker, I do agree that there must be gear check, but it should't be like "if you want to even try Mob X you must get Stat Y to Z amount" simple DPS chek is fine. All this Crit mit, crit chance requirement etc. is bad.

I don't think I have seen a game yet that meets those requirements

Oh yeah?? How about Checkers? Worked perfectly from day 1!

Don't forget.. you can't delay release either! Or people get impatient and grouchy!!

I bet you can find bug free code in a cave with a jack-a-lope, a board stretcher and a life free of taxes.

In the real world, you wouldn't expect to get smaller/lesser and still pay the same money or more. If you went to a fast food restaurant and were told that your burger would be half the size and you'd get half the fries because the place is understaffed, would you still expect to pay full menu price or more?

I'm not saying their expansions are bad, and I'll say without even seeing a preview that I'm 99% likely to buy the upcoming expansion -- but what you're saying doesn't make a lot of sense, consumer- and business-wise.

So, I hope they charge for an 'expansion' that's equivalent to the amount of work that went into it. I feel for the devs, honestly, but this game isn't a charity. It's getting so ridiculous how much this line is thrown at any dissenting or skeptical voice on the forums. I think the wisest course of action for those of us who are both optimistic and skeptical is wait and see. I am especially anticipating practical things like a scout revamp, but I'm not going to pay $40+ for AoM 2.0 that's a grindy questline and token reward repeatables instances. No matter how small the dev team is, this game is still a paid product, not a bread line.

The game's stability needs some attention. When I first started playing this game (when beastlords were introduced, of course), I could run it an entire day, going all over the world, and never crash once. Sometime around Rum Cellar, crashing when zoning became a LOT more common. I'm not even talking about my machine here. It's rare for a group to run more than a zone or two without having a member crash zoning. It's starting to approach Vanguard levels. I suspect it's related to memory pressure, since the game is still 32-bit. Getting it to run 64-bit would solve a lot of problems around that.

Server performance is still a problem on some raids. You can't "fix beastlords" without addressing that, since beastlords cannot operate in optimal modes when the server drops very much below being able to accept the ideal number of CAs per second. I think part of this started when stat-flation brought everyone up to always sitting at the cap for reuse and casting speed an expansion or two ago, so now everyone is doing a lot more, a lot faster. This also kind of hurts the pacing of the game; I can't stop to type (or take a swig from a drink) anymore without dropping my damage on the floor.

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Content-wise, what I'd like to see, though it's not likely to happen... a re-imagined Shar Vahl. Complete with Vah Shir. And of course the hidden Harem above the castle.

A "traditional eq1 beastlord" outfit would be nice too; I'm using a Gi now which gets part of it close, but it's still a ways off. At least I can see part of my fur with it on.

I would say more quested beastlord warders (only 1 (non-appearance) warder has been added since beastlords were added), but we already have a problem where only ~5 of the 17 warders are still sensible choices, so maybe that needs addressed first.

A heroic contested dungeon would be nice. Deep maze-like places, rife with danger. But just enough little safe pockets that a sneaky kitty might be able to sneak around exploring. Most of the current zones are just straight-line run throughs. Even ossuary contested is just like 3 straight stubby little lines. Brokenskull Bay contested kind of got it right (but being a lower level zone with no real loot, there was no real motivation to ever go there, once you hit 100).

What do I want to see in the next expansion?

More content, more heroic / raid content, and harder content.

Don't get me wrong, not all content should be difficult, but there isn't a good mix currently, and what mix there is is very polarized. It either content to bulldoze over, or insanely difficult content that too few (particularly on my failed server) can do.

A better mix of content progression would be a welcome change.

Unfortunately, that happens all the time. When was the last time you bought 2L of ice cream? Most are 1.89L now and some are even 1.5L. Same size package, same price. Cookies, cereal bars, cheese are just a few things off the top of my head that I notice when I buy groceries that are getting downsized while keeping the same price. They keep the packaging the same size but reduce the amount. Seems to be the new marketing strategy.

I was just reading over the incoming WoW expansion notes and this is what I call an expansion.

• Level cap raised to 110
• New continent which include 4-5 new overland areas
• New class - Demon Hunter
• Artifacts - customizable weapons that grow in power as you do
• Class-specific Order Halls - not sure what the heck these are...
• All New Dungeons and Raids
• New World Bosses
• Revamped PvP progression system
• Free Character Boost—immediately raise one character to level 100

Now that sounds like its worth the $40 blizard normally charges. I miss these type of expansions in EQ
I hear what people say about how EQ/EQ2 do not have as many devs as they did in the past. But from a consumer perspective that's not my problem. Am I suppose to feel bad and expect less? I still pay a monthly sub. I still buy the content releases at the same prices. In summary I expect more content, not less.

You must be new around here. Draughts was perfect till they added the horrible king expansion and changed the name...... </joking>

Honestly though, the third party bug tracker is giving visibility to the process fixing it. Yeah. It's third party. Yeah it's not linked on this site (why not? I don't know). Yeah it's yet another place to go for info....

https://dgcissuetracker.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa?selectPageId=11501

I like watching this and I like seeing actual good replies. It helps remove the feeling no one cares

Nor me, but I can dream

Just like McDonald's, you can choose not to go if the value doesn't seem good enough to you.

Remember that fast food joints over the last 10 years have upped their prices, even if they're giving you the same quantity. EQ2 expansions haven't risen from my understanding. Neither has subscription fees.

We may get less, but we are paying less than we did 10 years ago in theory,due to inflation and stuff.

For the record, because we bought RC, I'd prefer this xpac to be cheaper, but I doubt it will be.

Lets break it down.

Well specifically for EQ2 i dont want any more level caps or classes. WE dont need mroe classes and level caps are BS timesinks. At best they provide some sort of short term chase and feel of accomplishment but design wise they are completely unnecessary. Level caps are what clueless producers and marketing think xpacs need, not good designers.

-4-5 overland zones, 3 of which are disposable thanks to the new level cap. (not built for 'cap' content)
-EQ2 is getting a BUNCH of weapon customization inc if you saw the preview stream a while back that introduced a few of the ethereals (stat shifting/upgrading, upgrading, delay change).
-New dungeons and raids, obviously we are getting those.
-World bosses - these are just open zone contested mobs, obviously we have those too
-Revamped PvP - well they got us there, personally I think EQ2 PvP is so far gone any serious efforts would be little more than life support, if that.

I won't deny EQ2 might have less in quantity due to staffing and more bugs due to lack of sufficient QA (play on beta/test if you ACTUALLY care and its just not a reason to whine), but I submit considering how much money WoW makes, WoW players are getting fleeced.

still... i saw a thread yesterday about a quest off CL which i /bugged about 7 years ago and was supposedly fixed a year or so later when they did a big bug fix run.

Make class channels worldwide, across all servers.

Are you freaking kidding me, fast food inflation comparison on an expansion?! LOLOL Food prices have actually gone up, but last time I checked you don't have to worry about drought effecting the cost of bacon in your expansion. DoV wasn't that bad of an expac, had lots of content that felt appropriate for the price, was 2011 - not ten years ago. I highly doubt EQ2 dev wages have forcibly risen that much in 4 years that it would impact the price and size of the an expansion due to inflation. LMAO guys, please think about what you type out. And to act as though it's a favor that we're paying $15 a month still for less content, with cash shops, while FFXIV charges $12.99 for an all-included and regularly updated game.

What effects the size-to-price value of an expansion? Being bought out by an investment firm and having your already small development team shrunken further yet still expected to bring in the same amount of cash and hoping apologists will excuse such a ludicrous idea rather than face the reality that it might not be feasible. But hey, we have people clamoring to pre-order a collector's edition already! There's one thing we agree on, if it doesn't seem worth it, don't buy it, which is a problem if a whole lot of people don't think it's worth it.

Enjoy your old content or a different game then as it seems no matter what argument I come up with you'll disagree.

My expectations are that I get engrossing content that keeps me interested. The actual size of the land mass is not a deal breaker.

I'm also a realist who recognises restrictions placed on people (ie the devs) that are out of their control. They work hard with the resources they have, and if that's not good enough for you, feel free not to part with your money.

Also, lol at draught causing bacon cost increases in fast food. We're an international world these days, food isn't difficult to come by, imported from somewhere else for probably less money than to get it locally... and pigs don't need healthy grass to feed on.

The devs doing the work have to pay more for their bills, so their salaries need to go up. So the gaming companies are paying the same people more money they they were before. The price for expansions and subs has not gone up...
It has nothing to do with a 'drought', it's simple cost of living/inflation increases.

You should watch/read the news sometime.

And you're right, I do feel free not to part with my money if it's not worth it. Kind of what I said all along.