Level 55 content development

Fulgrin

Dalayan Beginner
I just wanted to entertain the idea of developing new content based around lvl 55. This gives new players to the game an option besides going straight to 65. Its difficult for anyone to find a quick group these days let alone fresh 65 toons. Plus if the content is awesome enough plenty of high tier players will want to explore it as well.

Lets take a look at what this could look like. After 2.5 comes out I think an entire expansion based on lvl 55 would be awesome and bring huge numbers to sod. Similar to Iksith in appearances. Something once you hit lvl 55 you do a quest and then can entire into this whole new expansion for lvl 55 toons. Everything in this new expansion is 100% lvl 55. What expansion do we use? Probably zones out of multiple expansions I would assume to make our own new expansion.

Gameplay wise what are we adding to SoD?
So in our new expansion we would be adding new lvl 55 adepts. For a long time I have been saying to myself how much I would love more lvl 55 adepts to kill. With this new expansion that would be a reality. I Imagine 4 new adept mobs. 2 of these adepts are roughly the same difficulty as traek and pounders. The other 2 I would make a boss and underboss. Much more difficult than traek/pounders. Think abyss difficulty mobs for lvl 55.

The adepts would be fun but even better than that would be the raid tiers. I think we would have enough people making permanent lvl 55 toons and new players coming through and stopping at 55 that we could have a series of 18 man raids. I would set up 4 tiers for lvl 55 , 18 man raid content. Tier 1 which fresh lvl 55 can raid assuming they picked up some basic newbie armor. Tier 2 which is more in the deepmetal armor/ treasure map gear for lvl 55s. Should have a decent number of AA. But not a tier so difficult that a fresh 55 cant get scummed in. Tier 3 would be the big money twink status content. We have all seen the lvl 55 players with 200 aa and 50k+ in gear, etc. That's where this tier should be at gear check wise. Meaning t1 and t2 will drop some nice phats for 55s. Anyways the last tier would be 4. This is a tier that challenges even cream of the crop for lvl 55 toons.

Yes this means that the first couple of tiers for 65 raid content would become semi obsolete. They pretty much are anyways so i don't see it hurting to much. I would make 4 raid zones total for the 18 man raid content for lvl 55. Each tier would have its own zone.

6 man content. Folllowing the same 4 tier raid structure set above, now lets create 6 man content.
A zone like Cmal would be perfect for this because of the different wings. Again put a different tier 6 man in each wing or zone or whatever. Again rally love Cmal for this.

New XP zones would be awesome for lvl 55 as well. Since people will be staying there at 55 for along time it would make sense to add new xp zones. I think of Kaesora, Blood Quarry and Citadel when i think of difficulty. 2 new easy xp zones similiar to kaesora difficulty would be nice. In these 2 zones i would also put the 2 easier the new adept mobs. Just a sll clear to the new adepts. Then I would make one new xp zone similiar to blood quarry in difficulty. A bit more of a challenge. I would put the other 2 adepts in this zone. The underboss and boss adept. Lastly you have your difficult xp zone imagine citadel in difficulty. 4 new xp zones. Plenty of space for people to xp. Plus with 55 solo area's in the 2 easy zones. Everything XP wise is covered.

Sounds like a lot of of work. Nobody has time for that.
Yeah I agree. We shouldn't have our devs slaving over this for long periods of time. We should have a 2016 game developers internship and have them do the grunt work. i will be the first to admit, I have no idea what it takes to make any of what I have said so far actually happen. But I guarantee there are kids out there with the summer off from computer college who would love to put this on their resume. Kids who can probably make what I said up there, a reality. Plus don't Devs love teaching and guiding the next generation? perfect opportunity to get sods name out there, and to mentor some up and coming techies. Also note all the doors this opens for future possibilities within SoD development.

Anyways i think the community would love to help write quests, fights, etc . With the possibilities of 2.5 and 55 content our name could get much bigger and have a bigger active population. Feedback welcome let me know if you would support this idea.
 
Hello - this is Meshach in game - I think a greater focus to gather and concentrate people of the same level is important, too. Many of us are charc. of various degrees that it can be hard to find groups with our current pop. Having 55 only context could produce a concentration of players. Thanks
 
Let's face it,most players want to make 65 as fast as possible.
Time invested in creating 55 - 6man/12man/raids and what not will be better invested in developing 65 stuff,imho.
Also we already have more than enough interesting 55 zones with (partially) awesome loot from normal mobs,adding more 55 xp zones would
just cause people to split up even more.
I am not opposed to the idea of adding a few more 55/57 adepts or shorten the respawn time of the existing ones as these are great oppurtunities to get
people to know.
Well,and making VE to Mod maps accessible to 55 chars is long overdue.

And note,this post coming from a guy with 2 xp capped perma 55s (Melhdur,Melport)
 
I like the general idea, but with Ikisith phase 2 six years in the waiting and 3.0 several years in the waiting and 2.5 the much faster answer to 3.0 in the waiting for almost as long this level of content overhaul seems unlikely.

4 tiers of raiding for midgame players is redonkulous. Turning some of those obsolete low tier targets you mentioned (looking at you Gnok, Lavascale, etc...) into 55 adepts and MAYBE a single ,level restricted (no 58+), mini raidzone with adept fights would be cool. Stick it in Heartlands in that weird doorway across the river. The Bazaar (really small zone, cool arena in the back) zone from live would work great to this end.

Adding 5-6 world 55 adepts and a zone with ~4 new 57 adepts should give everyone at 55 a target up at almost any time and make a nearly full set of Nalia-Traek quality gear possible. Rekajiggering a few mobs nobody really cares about and designing one little zone? That could be finished in one good weekend.
 
Instead of new content, tweak the old dead stuff for the 55s.

YES! In my mind, it isn't that there is a lack of stuff to at that low levels, it's that there is a lack of incentive to do what is there! Many loots from Lv55-T4 are worse than BOEs. The adept loot seems to be the exception, but instead of designing a bunch of new adepts (WAY too many man-hours), why not take a few of the lower tier raid mobs (gnok, lavascale, warp, etc) and convert them from raid targets into higher level adepts (59, 61, 63)? This way, you pay tribute to old content without re-inventing the wheel. Many of these mobs are ONLY sniped for ancients, and IMO one could easily leave ancients to drop on prospective lv 61 or 63 adepts. Tuning these encounters down to that level shouldn't be too bad because they are mostly simple strategies. It would ultimately come down to just re-doing the loot, a bit of scaling, and not a whole lot else. This helps to fill in the gear-gap before raiding, gives more 12 man targets that are killed by the people they were designed for (and not a two box of ringers with their buddy who needs an ancient) - and it provides a means to kill fun world mobs within the existing adept paradigm.

Thoughts?
 
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