Alternate Advancement: Good or Bad?

[Bumamgar]

My dream is that at the appropriate time post-Velious, Luclin will be released, but it will be modified to remove the Nexus spire translocators (keep the nexus portal spells of course for Wiz/Dru), and without the bazaar function.

My greater dream is that at the appropriate time post-Luclin, PoP will be released, but it will be modified to remove all PoK books/portals (other than the PoK port spell for Wiz/Dru, and the portal to PoTranq).

My ultimate all time dream is that at the appropriate time post-PoP, Gates will be released, but it will be modified to remove all instancing. All the previously instanced zones would be converted to static zones (including Tipt, Uquaa, etc).

My dreams don't include LoY or LDoN, but if they did, clearly they would be un-instanced versions of said expansions.

Realistic? Probably not... but a man can dream!

[utenan]

Just another timesink

[Glaena]

I have mixed feelings on AAs. For a long time, I hated grinding for them. For some reason, I never felt like getting more AA abilities was as satisfying as getting levels, especially when those AAs were more mitigation and avoidance, which are hardly optional for a tank, but aren't really fun abilities either (unless you count not dying as "fun"). You can really tell the difference between two tanks of the same level and gear when one has zero AAs and the other has a boatload.

And since you can get them all, it isn't a matter of customizing, but prioritizing the order you get them in. There are so many to get that catching up and feeling viable compared to characters played longer/more can be really daunting.

On the other hand, when I reached the point that I had 500 or so, which isn't very many these days, I felt like my characters had really improved and gained some neat abilities. I enjoy Army of the Dead on my necro, for instance, just because it is fun.

Meh. I think AAs would be overpowering for Classic (to Velious). We did it before in era gear and without AAs. If there's a point where people start clamoring for more to do, that might be the time to reconsider.

[Alleusion]

Originally Posted by Bumamgar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My dream is that at the appropriate time post-Velious, Luclin will be released, but it will be modified to remove the Nexus spire translocators (keep the nexus portal spells of course for Wiz/Dru), and without the bazaar function.

IIRC besides the Luclin launch being one of the biggest clusterfucks of SOE history, the bazaar wasn't fully functional at launch. I entered end-game during this expansion, so some of my best raid memories were maid in that snake place (the spelling escapes me atm), and with Lord Inquisitor Seru.

[BuzWeaver]

I had mixed feelings about AA's when they first came out. To me they are just an extension of the Skinner Box methodology to keep players pulling the slot machine handle.

[Wrei]

I don't think it's really an issue, the grind will always be there in some shape or form. No one is "forcing" anyone to xp 10 hours a day to get max AA's etc... The hardcore gamer will go all out (and if so what is the big deal? since the aa trees are capped), those who invest less time will go at their own pace. The point is that every "activity" you do post 50 involving mobs will yield some form of character development reward.

My biggest beef with WoW was precisely this issue. When your character development is based on gear improvement it trivializes a huge portion of the content you did in order to get to the end game. Seriously, if you were decked out in the best raid gear there was NO POINT whatsoever to run any instances or do quests (other then random faction). WoW countered this issue by offering an alternate game (PvP BG,Arena) and by simplifying the leveling process to the point that everyone could hit max level on 8 toons in no time.

Some of my friends loved "starting" over a toon, lvl a twink from 1 to whatever level wow is at now, then redoing the process all over again. Why would they ever need to log on their main besides raiding? Alternate Advancement was not a perfect system, it's grossly unbalanced (depending on expansions) but it gave the purists a way to improve their characters other than gear.

Why is that important? First, it gives new life to all previous old content. Farming is nice but xp'ing is a better reward. Raiders currently don't do anything other then make new twinks or try to farm plat in some form. Classic is congested but by the time we get a few more expansions there will be lots of xp grounds available that will be utilized even after you hit max level. It gives new life to the game for those who do not enjoy alts in any shape or form.

Second, it gives a chance for those who can't raid (due to RL schedules) to improve their character through other means besides gear. I.e You don't need to be in the top end guild to get a powerful toon.

Lastly, your time investment (towards character development) feels less cheated should you need to take a break for whatever reason. Classic example of this in WoW:

Player A is the best tank on the server on the first 3 expansions because he invested 982392843 hours at the raiding game. His RL job situation changes which forces him to take a break for an entire expansion. Player A comes back on the 5th expansion and though he may be more "skilled" and "experienced" his character does not reflect the time invested as random noob player B (who started a month ago) ends up having a more "developed" toon based on gear level.

Think of AA's as character development that stays beyond expansions. I.e something that's worth grinding for (if your actually going to grind for something).

At any rate, I'm not advocating to implement the AA system as is (as the live system is pretty retarded). People signed up here to have a "classic" experience and not "we'll make stuff up as we go along" EQ so not having AA's will not be a big deal. It was just my two cents on the concept of character development besides the gear grind.