Raise the Level Cap (reset method)

[Joalis]

Lots of talk about "reset this" and "reset that!".

Raise the level cap to 85 with the next expansion. Create a new level 85 set of gear (PvE and PvP) that requires a new set of tokens.

There you go, everyone is now reset because the Tier 0 gear for level 85 is better than the T3(4??) gear for level 80, and you even get a bracket for level 80-84 defined with a new PvP bracket at level 85. I think that you should not give additional feat points for the 5 extra levels gained because the skill trees are already pretty balanced between classes. Just a bigger stat budget for higher level players.

People will gain massive amounts of AA from leveling 80-85 to even the playing field (once you have a few dozen AAs trained the rest are just minor). They will have to regrind PvP gear so the brackets will not be vets vs noobs with vets winning. You have an opportunity to increase the PvP XP for open-world PvP, and give meaningful rewards @ level 80 while also making a new map for mini-games tied to the new expansion.

Vets will buy this. They will have no reason to complain because you just increased their options to advance their characters. New players will buy this. They will have no reason to complain because you just increased their ability to be competitive, and gave them a chance to actually participate on equal levels with the vets.

Sounds like win - win. Just have to find the resources to develop a new expac for AoC.

[Galadourn]

with all due respect, this approach is the fastest way to lose remaining players.
other means for player retention, without forcing repeated grinding, are more desirable, i.e. housing (wishful thinking), crafting revamp, and whatnot.

[ckirmser]

I would love housing. It's cool that guilds can build cities, but individual houses that can be personalized and used as storage would be great. Something like the UO model.

I'd also like to see a good economic system where a player could open a store of his own to sell unwanted or unnecessary odds and ends discovered during adventuring or mined resources to other players, rather than to NPCs.

[Joalis]

with all due respect, this approach is the fastest way to lose remaining players.
other means for player retention, without forcing repeated grinding, are more desirable, i.e. housing (wishful thinking), crafting revamp, and whatnot.

I'm surprised. The fastest way to lose new players is to provide them with no means of being competitive. The fastest way to lose older players it to provide them with a stale un-changing environment with no new ways to improve on their character and no competition.

People are complaining heavily about the PvP 10s vs the PvP nothings in other forums. They're complaining that PvE is boring and grindy. However, no one has ever complained that leveling via story and questing was too boring to tolerate. In AoC, that was actually fun. They storylines are sometimes very immersive and interesting. Rewards are often incredibly valuable.

I am not suggesting that all the gear people earned become worthless. Only that it be replaceable with upgrades by leveling to 85. Level 85 blues would probably be equivalent to level 80 T2-3 raid gear. While level 85 epics could replace level 80 T3-4 raid gear. The stat difference might only be 5% increase, but it's still progression.

Did WOW lose all it's subscribers when the Burning Crusade expansion that increased the level cap was released? Did Rift with it's increased level cap for the Storm Legion expansion? No, they flourished and actually gained subscribers. Even though greens a few levels above the previous max tier were much better than epics obtained via raiding for months on end.

There was initial resentment from the tiny minority of players that had obtained the maximum level of gear / progression possible. The problem is that a company cannot cater to the 1% of population (no matter how vocal) just because they're sad that the playing field was leveled.

AoC needs an infusion of new blood to flourish. That won't ever happen with the current status quo. I only was able to return to this game at all because my character was at the top of the progression curve when Khitai was released. If I wasn't already PvP level 8 w/ good raiding gear and a ton of AA, then I would not even have bothered to try the game again. My character would simply be too far behind.

Something like a level cap increase should happen to not only promote the game, but promote the players from being "Vets with nothing to do" and "New players with no way to compete" to "Vets with progression to accomplish", and "New players with a level playing field".

[bogus]

And what content do we get with increased level cap? 80% of pve content is designed for level 80. You cannot throw such massive amount, especially when it took 2 years for Funcom to introduce 2 new dungeons and revamp 4 old ones. Forget pvp'ers, most of them left since last 4 years AoC got almost only pve development. You cannot screw what's left because of few whiners.

And lets be fair. You can do Unchained/Godslayers mode with fresh toons, and that gear is enough for T4. PvE gear progression is really flat in AoC (and that's issue because of that huge amount of content have no use at all). If anything makes difference between fresh players and veterans its experience and skill, because AoC whatever bored vets say is difficult and complicated game. And most tutorial sucks.

[Joalis]

And lets be fair. You can do Unchained/Godslayers mode with fresh toons, and that gear is enough for T4. PvE gear progression is really flat in AoC (and that's issue because of that huge amount of content have no use at all). If anything makes difference between fresh players and veterans its experience and skill, because AoC whatever bored vets say is difficult and complicated game. And most tutorial sucks.

Pretty sure this paragraph sums up the sentiment of the PvE player very well. Revamp the existing "useless" content, and make it for level 85. Remove tier 3.5 because it's worthless, and open up a new raid instance (just one) for level cap.

We need one maybe two new zones, or update some of the existing zones with a new instance type. Who does Ymir's Pass, Thunder River, or even the new Savage Coast content? Most of it is skippable, and worthless with how fast you can level. Leave it as an option, but also open up a new level 85 (epic) version of those types of zones with level 88-90 mobs and new quest chains available for max level players.

There's a lot of way to implement a level increase. Funcom may not have the development budget to do that, and if that is the case then the game is pretty much never going to improve anyway - and should be considered dead. The thread is pointless if Funcom has already decided to let the game slowly die out (which is entirely possible and maybe even likely).

If not, however, then raising the level cap seems like a viable method of "leveling the playing field".

[Texan615]

Level cap should have been increased to 85 back in May 2010, when Khitai expansion came out.

[K4nnyc]

It's a very nice thought.

But with current development essentially "paused" for a few years now to the point that I don't think T5 is coming within the next 18 months or even 24 months. I firmly believe that what we have now is essentially all we are gonna have for the next 2 years.

T5 and T6 raid content is needed but I cant see the gear being better to the degree t3,5 and t4 was to the first 3 tiers. Those gears are worlds apart. T5 and 6 if it ever comes will probably be only a few points on top of what already exists. 1 or 2 points of strength more than T4 for example.

Increasing the level cap is a monumental change to the game I just don't think its feasible, it's bigger content than 2 new raiding tiers, it's a huge amount of work I don't think they can ever pull it off.

[Petridish]

Level cap should have been increased to 85 back in May 2010, when Khitai expansion came out.

I actually liked the fact that they never increased the level cap ... it is the single fastest way to obsolete all current content overnight.

Case in point: What happened in World of Warcraft every time they increased the level cap.

[Lokrian]

raising the level cap for this game would be a winner, it would at least keep it a viable mmo.

they just have to get rid of aa system to do it, and that would mean granting all the bonuses pressing/decisive lvl 5 etc to new 80's so they are on a level playing field for new content and old players.

they could keep the perks, improve on that and use those for the defining characteristics of a toons role, be it pvp or pve.

they do need to also improve the usability of the game, dungeon finders or at the least group ports to a dungeon... **** even wows old system of having a summoning stone at the instance would save a **** load of time and hassle.

and they need to tweak the ability of a few classes to do their jobs... personally i think most dps classes are ok, necro pet summon needs speeding up, hox as a class needs a tweak... long long combo casts are a killer for questing and solo play and spoil the all around "i wanna main this class!"

I think healers are pretty good, only issue i see is the complete lack of synergy for heals of the same class in the same run... exclusionist game mechanics dont benefit anyone.

Tanking is where i see the need for most improvement. this is a vital role in any group, and for new players can be almost impossible to do with the gear requirements and aa requirements demanded by khitai.
define the 3 tanking classes roles more, and the feat trees. Tali tanking on a DT has screwed this class because of the massive dmg it can pull and all the qq it has caused, and yet it "feels" more like how a Dt should tank.
I think all 3 classes need more aoe threat, and all 3 need decent working taunts/redirects, both single target and aoe.
Im also not really a fan of having to have multiple tanks in 6 mans... raids or mini raids yes, but not your run of the mill quick daily dungeon runs.

lot more suggestions, but out of time