Raise the Level Cap (reset method)

[Lokrian]

Go play something else, you just wanted to change everything that makes AoC unique. And no increasing level cap won't be winner, it will be death of AoC. Blizzard needs 1.5 year to develop expansion with enough content. Funcom would need 10 years.

AoC is going to be dead not because of not increased level cap, but because not existing development time.

what makes aoc unique to me is the mature content and gameplay lines as well as the "realistic" look of the world and graphics... branding something as unique and special because "we wait for 2 hours to run warmonks!!" is pathetic.
in relation to development the best thing funcom could do is sell the franchise to a developer with money, eg blizzard, or do what star citizen is doing and have a design plan that is implemented and paid for by donations and the subscribers themselves.

this games is stagnating, and releasing new content eg unchaining old content, dosent hit the mark as they are attempting to cater to existing geared vets in difficulty, yet new players ( which is what this game desperately needs) dont stand a chance at running it in **** gear with no aa's.

and expecting any new player to roll 1 toon, play it 12hours a day and try and get a few aa's to max to be able to play competitively 6 months from now.... not gonna happen.

[Bibik]

Do you really expect someone would buy Age of Conan ? Most of the developpers or editors you're thinking about would have sold AoC before 2011.
And crowdfunding is also a false-hope suggestion. Nobody except maybe one thousands hardcore fans will backup a project like that. It would be a great fiasco worth of laughing.

[Joalis]

Chill, dude.

This thread concerns player retention; I'm a player and I posted on how to retain me. Further, how to entice me to subscribe and give Funcom my money.

Firstly, there's no reason for me to chill - I'm not a forum rager. I even addressed your off-topic discussion.

This thread does not concern generic player retention. This thread is about raising the level cap (please check the title of the thread). In my opinion, raising the level cap would help retain players. That does not mean the thread should be derailed into an entire discussion on your personal PvP vs PvE take from reading the forums.

If you want to describe how a new level cap would help you enjoy the game further, awesome. If you want to discuss about how having 5 extra levels might make it easier for you to compete with veteran players, since you're clearly new, then great.

However, if you want to take a tiny side-topic that was barely mentioned in the OP, and then derail the entire thread into that conversation - I call you a forum troll.

My suggestion - make a new thread. Title it "why PvP in this game doesn't work for me" - because that is the degeneration of this thread.

Now, back on topic. Adding more levels to this game would greatly help level the playing field that has been very skewed over the years. The point about Funcom not having the ability to develop that much content is fairly valid. I would still rather see the option in the future over a new raid released for level 80s that would only further increase the gap between new and veteran players.

Funcom has to realize that they're not going to get new players interested in the game if every time they encounter someone from 6 years ago, they're vastly out-geared and supremely behind in AA. This is primarily from a PvP perspective, but it carries heavily into PvE also since the requirements for PvE content are strict - and obtaining those requirements can be tedious / impossible depending on how willing the veteran population is with helping new players run old content for gear.

[cins]

No.

Also we're already 85 with all the bells and whistles, pushing up into something like 88 thanks to bullshit of T4 gear. Or do you think a group of players who're truly at level 80 power can finish any dungeon of Karakorum or above difficulty?

You know as well as I do that they can't make dozens of new dungeons no matter what level they'd be at. "Unchaining" the existing content by adding 5 levels on top (the only thing FC could realistically do) would also be an awful waste of manpower, for players will still be using FH on Burnt Skin and hiding from Yun Fire in the end. Except they'll need to grind 5 more levels worth of xp before they can get to it.

[Drest]

Cleaned a bunch of off topic posts

[Petridish]

Raising the level cap may indeed help with new players (because all the current level 80 gear is obsoleted, and everyone, veterans and new 80s alike, will need to level again and get the new gear) ... but it won't help with the power gap due to AAs.

It's also unrealistic in that Funcom doesn't have the resources for it. I would expect 80-85 to be of a size similar to Khitai ... that's a lot of content.

... and Khitai already seems to be 85 level content (which AAs effectively make people).

So it appears that Funcom chose to introduce AAs as a parallel to, and instead of, increasing the level cap. Possibly because it doesn't immediately obsolete existing content (as you're still technically level 80, the AAs just mean you overpower it easily eventually).

[1jqqijgg]

As pointed out, AA's ARE the new level cap, only, you get to choose how you level up.

Also, there are many people in various stages of progression. The thought that the vast majority of players have hit the so-called ceiling, just isn't the case. That's why everyone is spamming k6's still, and I even see a healthy amount of T1 & T2 raids form, just about every day. The fact that you only see an 80 after their name, does not speak to their situation, or what they like to do. I still do T1 raids on almost fully geared T1 characters, because its an easy purple, or I need a weapon, or because its fun to be a part of a raid, even if its one I have done many times.

Also, you get a large amount of AA experience just doing your run of the mill flame/vortex/palace rotation. New players can watch strategies of how to perform, or read them on the internet, in order to be an effective player there, or do the more desirable thing (even if its not a mandatory action), and join a guild, and see if they are willing to teach them.

I do, however, think that unchaining lower areas and incentivising their population is a great idea. I would love to run thru an epic thunder river, or even border ranges in the wild lands! But, then again, those have always been some of my favorite areas.

[barbaricwildcat2]

advance their characters

no thank you

[barbaricwildcat2]

NPC

this in an mmo, over doing gameplay with npcs might hurt the multiplayer part