Level Increase?Follow

-the 2 main city idea of EQ2 was a good idea. Consoldate baz, guild hall, etc. in Freeport and Qeynos (steal the baz % of sale trick from WoW for buying from your opposite faction baz) and then blow up PoK. This wont happen though.

-Put magus at wizard and druid spires instead of pok (and have them connect to faction like they were meant to --a druid npc should not port an evil character that has done no faction work)

-Have a big event and get rid of the empty cities (starting cities). Keep Cabilis, Freeport, Qeynos and maybe the froglok tent city in Rathe (since that is a neat mishmash fix) would do it. Cabilis stays because Kunark was brilliant and needs little (*see below). Also, provide simple magus connections to the basic zones of the game... This would create busy cities... especially if they did the top point above. Also, make any cities in the game part of the zone they adjoin... 3 zones to get to the back of your city is silly.

-update old quest by adding the now lame result of old quest as a required item of a new task quest. So, for example, completing the screaming mace quest lets you satisfy condition #1 of a updated quest. Suddenly all old content is valuable. And... no revising of it is needed.

-New races:

Aviaks: shaman, ranger, warrior and monk... beastlord if you want to give them a seagull. If you have to give every race a starting city with a pok book at least Karana would be closer.

Half-orcs: ranger (unless you add an evil class that tracks)and all the typical orc classes (warrior, shaman.... Revise crushbone to be the original layout xp zone with a lower level city (again if they have to have their own)

New classes:

Huntsman: EVIL, can track, use crossbows, give them a range of abilities similar to druid ranger with necroish feel to it (i.e., enslave animal... destroy animal aa, etc.) Make them 2hb specialists with a harm touch like ability to "club beat" .Better IMO than letting evil chars be rangers which is essenttially what this is.

Merchant/agent (for lack of better name): instead of tradional levelling this is a character that cant be buffed, levelled or do regular quests. They maintain original race faction and can travel as freely as that allows. They xp buy tradeskilling and doing tasks. There strength, Int and charisma go up as they level (improves tradeskilling and selling to npc). THey get special purchasing tasks that slowly give them additonal factions and platinum. They get extreme tradeskilling bonuses as they level (no aa). They provided a set amount of obtainable platinum (from the quests). If letting someone have such a char too long is a problem give them a second xp meter called lifespan. when they have done too much tradeskilling or questing for plat they must retire (and get rerolled automatically as ~name the Second).


-The other option is to have events and take races and classes out of the game. For example, destroy Kaladim and no new dwarves. During the event have a series of "Warborn Dwarf" quests that on new dwarves made during this time get. Event ends dwarf is locked out. 6 months later... next expansion is called "Dwarven Alliance" and Thurgadin has a tent city outside of it.


Really long post... sorry to those that dislike that. There is so much that can be done with this game. I bet if they started a no alt REGULAR rules server and let you move one character there it would be busy with no changes to the game at all. Ditto if they made a server with bonus raid xp. If server rules appealled to the play styles maybe that could ease the frustration many feel.

I don't care one way or another.. I get there..

Just as long as there is no greed machine as with Muramite runes.
Tough to get, cost incredible plat in Bazaar. Been at it for months , still trying, It's pitiful i tell ya!

Hey... Was I whining?
[][/]

I am fine with a level increase, though I think the next expansion in 3 months or so may be too soon to bring it in. One thing I would like to change for the next levels is to make them real hell levels, 65-70 were too easy, people had maxed level in just a couple of days after expansion came out. I think its like 30% more exp each level to ding. I would rather see 500% more each level, really make it an acomplishment.

Edited, Tue Dec 6 08:25:49 2005 by TonyRenald

We need something new , not just smack up another 5 lvls for the hell of it. YOU DEVS! Y0Y0 you need to make some interesting changes to EQ anyway you can , or it will surely die faster.

As with WoW you need to entertain all aspects (casual or hardcored high end gamers) , this means you cannot copy paste content like you did in DoDh now....................

As a high end raider I would like to see alot of things fixed in the current game. Including content and all classes. The game has changed so much but many things have not. The stat caps need to be raised, Flowing thought needs to be raised, HT is rarely used by top raiders, CH still hasn't been fixed (only heals you fully with an exceptional heal). And I'm sure other classes have needs as well. Increasing the lvl won't fix the problems of the current and past. As for content I would love to see a Planes of Power 2 with new and improved gods with content for high end raiders and the casual players as well.


ShadowKnight of Prexus

Sony: Please take note of all the players here who have posted that we want fixes to the old zones and quests. New abilities, races, classes. Something exciting for everyone.

I've given up interest in the high end game. It's just too much work and too much time that I don't want to devote to a game.
Lately I've actually been questing the old, old quests (Remember the Temple of Solusek?) and just role-playing because I lost total interest in monotonous grinding.

I would love to invite some real life friends and family to play....but how can I explain that they'd have to buy a bunch of expansions right off the bat to have access to everything Norrath has to offer? Maybe Sony can market another complete box set to intice new players.

I really hope they decide to make the old world areas more inticing. It's sad when these players who have godly gear have no idea what you're talking about when you say you're headed for Nurga to get some Sarnak faction.

#%!! no the game should not receive a level update, I've been playing this game on and off since the game started, well actually on for a few months of the summer and then off til within the last year. I personally LOVED the way the game was years ago, when you had no clue where to go, what to do, or even what was going on. All you knew was you were a Wood Elf Ranger (for me) living in Kelethin killing off those newbie mobs that dropped what was then decent money (a few silver) while you tried to level, and as you finally reached level 10 you were ecstatic that you were now considered to go into Crushbone and fight off the evil orcs. There was no map, there was no sense of direction outside of spells that turned you north or abilities that let you know what direction you were facing. There was no buying platinum as many players now feel they must do to keep up with the game, there was just playing the game, killing the mobs running errands for your class, and the post office, trying to earn a living and looking forward to the next good zone to go through, shoot I remember feeling scared walking through Lesser Faydark because I had no idea what the zone was, just that the things in there could kill me quick and I wanted to get to Steamfont to group with some gnomes. All of these new expansions have just led people to want to level faster, get better equipment, become as close to godlike as you can, and all the lower levels are left feeling pressured to skip past it all and get to the higher levels quickly. It used to be a challenge to get from level 1 (when you actually started at that level) to 10... now I can do that in a day with the new tutorial.... Home cities have become a thing of the past, some people don't even know where theres is or what the point of being there is.... Orc Pawns in Kelethin are useless because all newbies come out of the tutorial and they are green. People don't really want to get to the point where there scrambling to get things they don't even need like to get from 69 to 70 or from 1499 AA's to 1500... as a true gamer I want the thrill of not knowing whats out there, I want to start with a level 1 and actually break a sweat to get to level 2 and 3 and 10... I don't know if I am the only one that feels this way, but I do know that I'm not surprised that people flock to new games... it's exciting to not know things such as whether or not your ready to take on an Orc Centurion, now I can just head to the PoK and grab a temp and take out 10 of them at level 1 if I wanted. Personally I think the IDEA the game started out as has been lost, and all SOE is trying to do is advance the higher ended levels, where I believe what they need to do is attract newer players... when I came back to Everquest after my long teenage years of not being able to afford the game and etc... I came back in disappointment, cause instead of finding myself left bloody and near dead from an intense battle with an orc centurion I now fly through Paludal Caverns swinging my twinked blades trying to gain quicker levels to see if the higher levels will be better, but as I get there it is only becoming apparent that spending a couple of hours a day looking for a group is not worth the money while before spending a couple of minutes and thousands of brain cells trying to figure out where the hell I am and if I should try to kill that unicorn following me before I died from it attacking my back and not knowing where my corpse would be was fun and exhilirating. Like I said, I don't know if it's just me, but creating a server to allow the game to be played expansion by expansion with no high-end buffs (temp) to be cast on a level 1 would be a great idea, I'd actually have fun as a casual player again, instead of trying to speed my way through the day so I might have time to find a group to do something around my levels capabilities knowing well that I won't find one because everyone I grouped with yesterday is now either outside my level range, or are so ubered up that I feel like a meek mouse beside them... Good Luck SOE real gamers like myself, who also have a life, are finding it harder and harder to stay with the game we had come to love, and are now feeling left behind in... maybe a better idea is make a new server once a year... and every year let a new expansion be played on it... just the six cents (cause I had a lot to say) of someone who wants to play the game, not speed my way through it.

Don't know if it's been mentioned, since I only read about half of the forum... but I applaud Sony for making spell runes still available in Dod zones. That's always my concern when a new expansion comes out. It's like "how the heck am I gonna get the 65-70 spells when no one spends time in 65-70 zones anymore?" I have not seen the DoD runes but have heard they're out there and heard you can turn them in just like OOW runes. This is an intelligent trend that I hope Sony keeps up in the future. As for the level increase.. I need more AA's and have plenty to do in game to keep me very busy, so a big "no" on that one.

news flash! THIS GAME ISN'T NEW ANYMORE!!!!

You are not going to have the same experince that was out 6 years ago. If the game didnt' change and evolve along the way, it would be dead by now. The reason things move faster now is games like WoW which have a heightened pace are threating to EQ. Sony must make some changes to show that their game is also fun.

Things will never be like they were, and frankly, it's a good thing. I'm not saying every change they've made is good, or right, but overall, the game is better for the changes that they've done.

Raise levels?NO!
I guess I cannot be much clearer than that.
What needs to happen?
Make a portal room that you can enter from your home city, or even allied city, if your faction is high enough.
You enter the room and are presented with a series of port stones like in pok, but just the stones, so you can still access the PoP zones if you are flagged appropriately.
Remove Flags for all non Elemental Zones, keep the PoP flag quests in place for Elemental and Time zones.
Remove 85% for end game content. Anyone that really wants to get there will. After all look at all those that are there now. They wanted it and got it. Your a casual player and want to get there? Time to make choices then, do not expect others to bend/fold to your whim, we are not your mother.

After blowing up PoK, move parchment turn ins to your own class specific Guild Leaders faction permitting for spells, and put spell hand outs based upon the spells you do not have at the moment, then make them no drop.

Task NPC's that are level appropriate, class appropriate, expansion appropriate that can be found in your home cities, or allied cities (faction permitting).

If you revamp a zone like "Split-Paw" again, make the loot that can be found there appropriate for the level it takes to get there, or take off the no trade tag so it can be at least moved on to a level appropriate toon.
By the way, how much use does "Split-Paw" get anyway? A zone out in the middle of no where That level 70's pull to the zone line. Guess ya lost me on the train of thought there.

Keep the Hell Levels out!
Put required AA's per level in. Make this kind of a secondary requirement to leveling. Nothing worse out there than to see another lvl 70 tank with 12khp, 1800AC, going down like a cheerleader at homecoming because he basically Ebayed the toon's gear and level.
50 AA's to get past 60
100 AA's to get past 65
300 AA's to get to 70
and make them spent, not banked AA's

Make Monstor missions the way to gain AA's and if AA's are turned off make the XP not worth doing them. That way you do not end up with a lvl 70 tank, hybrid, priest class that can be take out by the first green con mob that they come upon on the way back to their home city to get the new quest/task.

Love the loot in Monster missions. (YEA RIGHT!), Expand loot tables, and make drops based upon the types of class's that are doing the missions. If you have three clerics, a warrior and a paladin, shrouding to character for a missoin, why would you drop Mnk/Dru/Bst legs/boots/gloves, that are no drop? Or even chain items? Make them a little something for everyone.

Once upon a time this game was about the ever quest to gain things, now if it continues on the course it is taking it shoule change its name to Ever Raiding.
Taking the individual quests out are understandable, but make quests at least one groupable.

Make some of the older farmed zones "blue" zones. "blue" meaning if you can't get xp from the mob your killing his loot table drops down to what is trade skillable and nothing more.

I too suffer from Alt itis. But as long as I can play my alts and have fun in level appropriate zones, I will. Especially if I do not fight for 45 minutes to an hour to get to a named PH, just to find "Uber_toon_0979608956" camping the ph as he/she/it has for the past ten weeks.

Put the customer back in customer service. It is almost impossible to send and e-mail and get any kind of response from your customer service department. Other than the automated we have changed the way we are doing things please go here, and then try this basic all purpose fix before asking any questions cause we at SoE think the average player is dummer than a still born puppy.

Send e-mails out to your customer base and ask them what would keep them in game for another year? You can surely set up a poll on your website that can handle the data, make sure everyone gets an access code so the cheaters cannot out prospher. Should be simple enough from a smart company as you.

Look at the old broken quests? Are they still broken? Fix them.
You Recieved a Petition from Player # "648976408", have a GM get back to them personally in game. What? you cannot tell who has logged in and when? Guess thats something to check out the log in servers for then.

I know the argument there are just too many customers to be able to afford to do these things. Share the wealth, more customers mean more income, happier customers spread the word creating a larger customer base. Do you pad your pockets or add to personal to keep the customer base happy? Guess you could pad the pockets and prepare for the self fulfilling prophecy of having this all crash around your ears, or hire another gm or two or three, to give some one on one service to customers when needed, and keep the game alive?
Spend more now or lose more later?

Was that a rant?
Ok Rant off.
If a player petitions an occurance, do not ask the player to attempt to make it happen again unless there is a GM there to witness it. What a waste of the customers time.

What they need to do is make an expansion that has more single player tasks that can actually be completed in a resonable period of time and have decent drops. So when people don't have 3-6 hours to play they can do something fun.