X-pac in November

Was wondering what people thaught would be in the X-pac i.e. level cap raised aa cap raised or nope to either.

You might try the Expansion Packs forum . . . just a suggestion.

There will be a level cap increase, can't say about the AAs though.

Level-cap increase to 90. Not sure about a new AA tree, but I'm fairly sure they won't raise the caps in the existing trees. New good-aligned starting city and corresponding continent, I'd expect it to include a T1-T2 starter area. New zones for T9 progression, and I'm hoping new zones for T3-T8 as well.
I expect T9 epic weapons and related quests (to get T9 epics, and to upgrade T8 epics and mythicals to T9). There'll probably also be the equivalent of shard armor for T9 added. With luck they'll also have adjusted things so the mastercrafted-gear revamp can be applied to T8 and T9.

Jrral@Unrest wrote:

I really hope its nothing like that...
New Cities are a waste of dev time.
New Starting areas are a waste of dev time.
More t1-t8 content is a waste of dev time.
There simply is an overabundance of content for that playing niche already, the bulk of the players are at cap, we need the bulk of resources spent developing content for where players are.

There better be a cap increase

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Wah wah wah. It's not a waste of developer time if it's being productive. This argument has been beaten to death before. They'll put in what they fell is appropriate for the next content regardless of what you think actually gets used over the course of time.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

This game will die if it only focuses on trying to keep the people it has at end-game. With that in mind:
1) New cities are needed, specially since that is where the quest lines for the expansions ussually happen. The Docks and Terens Grasp were starting locations where an amiacable face could be found, and each area has them... Jinisk, Danask, blah blah, Even the drop-ship landing and Guk can be concidered new cities.
2) New starting areas a an absolute must in a game that has to attract more people, and as we all know, old T1-T8 content is not training the new players enough to know how to play their class in a group in T8 and now T9, so they do need to revamp the heroic content to give good progression and great gear, and not just soloing your quests.
Just because there is an "abundance" of content, it doesn't mean that the new player (or returning player) wants to go through it.
If you want the game to die out, then yes, your request is the absolute best way... give no reason for a new player to even give the box a second look, specially if it states that all it comes with is an update for the maximum level playerbase.
New player: "So... if I buy this expansion, when will I get to enjoy its additions?"
Vendor: "In about a year when you get to maximum level."
New player: "F that, I would rather just get this single player rpg that I don't have to pay a monthly fee for."

Actually, hope they don't do a level cap raise. Gonna be just a huge time-sink for alt happy people

Will raise cap to 90
Will increase AA
Will feature both odus and velious continet content
Will have erudin starting city.

New starting areas and new lower tier content will just push what we have now into the unused category due to the obviously better rewards and experience to come with them, largely invalidating what content is already there to be used.

I suspect much of this is wishful thinking and not based on any knowledge although if they stick to their past pattern this would be the year for level cap raise.
I don't see how they can raise the AA cap without adding another tree. Now that I'm closing in on 200 AAs I'm plain running out of things to put them into with the exception of the ToS tree. Oh I could fill out a couple more lines in my class tree I suppose, but I'm definately hitting diminishing returns. If they add more AAs but no more trees AAs will no longer be about choosing what you want to be as you'll be able to be pretty much everything. I was under the impression that they only increased AAs every other year.
Doesn't seem to make sense to add lower tier content while at the same time reducing experience requirements and pushing people to cap faster.
For someone who's new, the OLD starting cities will seem new. I don't see the need to add another starting city for the sake of newcomers. MIGHT want to add a starting city for jaded oldtimers I suppose. That might hold their interest for a few days. The most they might do is revamp some of the quests to be better in keeping with the game as it is now.
More cities are cool. They don't have to be starting cities though. Someone mentioned cities such as Jinsk and Danak. Those were cool but definately not starting cities.
If they want to get the most bang for their buck, they should put most (but not all) of their effort into content which can be repeated over and over. Fewer one time quests, more repeatable quests. Fewer mid tier zones, more end tier zones. There should be enough content so people can get leveled up with a minimum gear level, but most of the effort should then be on repeatable content people can come back to over and over and continue to get something out of it.
I sure hope they do better then they did with Shadows and have more then one not so great outdoor zone. Kunark was fantastic. I'd love to see more along those lines.
I hope they have at least one really tough solo area. Better yet, an instanced solo area. Something where you can show what you can do without leaning on others.

Gilasil wrote:

I really like this idea. It reminds of the Paw adventure pack when they had the Champion trial. When it was first released, people were having a real tough time with it. That was fun and added to the accomplishment of completing each level of the test.

Bigron@Unrest wrote:

I agree with what he said..................

Atan@Unrest wrote:

TSO was pretty much as you described, all end game content, no new cities or starting areas. I haven't been this bored this quickly in a new expansion since DoF. I'd trade my grandmother in for a new starting town/leveling path right now.

They lowered the xp curve, they shoehorned everyone to level 80, they are giving out masters for free. There is an overabundance of lower level content. Players constantly complain about lack of groups and activity at the lower levels because its already so spread out. I seriously, seriously, seriously doubt you'll ever see a 1 to cap expansion ever again.
New starting cities are also dumb because new = best. They have the best quests, the best itemization and they're new. Each new starting city just makes the old starting cities ghost towns and spreads out the lower levels even more. Look what happened with Timorous Deep.
There is no reason for the EQ2 team to focus on anything lower than level 70 with the next expansion. Some level 70 stuff, some level 80 stuff, the majority of stuff level 90.

One thing this game is seriously lacking is good content going from 50 - 70
I absolutely dread going to SS, Lfay, Loping and KOS. These zones are in serious need of Everfrost type makeovers.

I wish they would go where no MMO has gone before and get rid of leveling. Level grinding is boring and mindless whether it is questing or old world dungeons. It should be when you buy the new expansion and choose the new starting area you get a free level (80) character. New and old players then share the same leveling zones to get to 90. The problem with MMOs is they make players do boring content before they can do fun content. Why not just make all the content fun that why everyone wins. If done right it would revolutionize MMOs and kick WoW's butt.

Thunndar316 wrote:

LFay is quite possibly the most beautiful and questline-driven zone in the game. You can't be serious.

Ocello wrote:

I actually agree with Thunndar on this. 50 to 70 is the stretch I hate the most. Even still, I do like the LFay quests and the zone, but there still is not enough interesting content for 50 to 70. As an evil toon you are actually precluded from the quests given to good toons by the fae (unless there is a way to get those quests that I didn't figure out).
I would actually like to see more quests added to KoS. I really like those zones but I still don't think there are enough quests to keep you going at an interesting pace.