Raising the Level Cap

[TheDurken]

PRE-EMPTIVE TL;DR: Don't raise the level cap, instead offer new abilities and gear through the new Class Stories and planetary quests in the new zones.

 

I think it's strange that most MMOs nowadays buy into this concept that the level cap must be raised with the release of a new expansion.

 

It's most likely too late for Rise of the Hutt Cartel, but I hope maybe BW will take the following thoughts into consideration before they raise the level cap again for the second expansion one day:

 

THE GOOD OF RAISING THE CAP

- You have more levels to "grow more powerful"

- You give players a reason to play through all the new quests and storylines

- You get a couple extra weeks as people are busy regearing to work on the next content release

 

THE BAD OF RAISING THE CAP

- You invalidate all the work players have done thus far on collecting gear

- You mess with PvP bracket balance

- You force people that just want to raid or PvP to "waste" some of their time releveling and regearing

- You render all old end-game content obsolete

 

The bolded con above is what really bothers me. This game has a reputation of having very little end-game content to begin with so adding new end-game is good, but at the cost of the old end-game material seems a bit counter-productive to me. I realize you want to give players a reason to go and experience the new story of Makeb, but you don't need to add level incentive to do that.

 

SWTOR IS UNIQUE AND HAS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

SWTOR is the most story-driven MMO I have ever seen and it is also the most engrossing in that regard. This gives BW the unique opportunity to offer rewards for playing an expansion in a different way from many other MMOs. If I were in BW's position I would not raise the level cap. Instead I would offer new class abilities as story quest rewards as you go through your new Class Story and I would award gear from the planetary quests.

 

This way everyone has a reason to play through their stories and new 50s and/or non-raiders have an optional way to catch up in gear via planetary quests, but the raiders can skip those if they so please and go straight into the next raiding tier. This also keeps the old raids relevant as fresh 50s can choose to start an entry-level raid team to gear up if they so please and people will still feel the old raids are more relevant even if they outgear them because they are still at-level with the players. Old HM FPs can be kept in the pool with the new ones (perhaps with a toggle switch to choose if you want to include them in your HM queue) with updated daily rewards so once you get the new HM gear you have more variety of FPs to play for your dailies.

 

FREE-2-PLAY BONUS THOUGHT

This game just went free-2-play with an advertisement that you can play all the way to level cap for free. Awesome! With raising the level cap though there is a MUCH lower likelyhood of "hooking" F2P at 50 with Ops and other end-game content when once the expansion releases F2P will have 0 access to end-game, which will not help entice them and build subscriptions.

[Phyltr]

They've already stated they are, indeed, raising the level cap to 55.

[TheDurken]

I'm aware. That's why I said it's too late to implement for Makeb. This is a long-term suggestion that I am curious about what others think about the idea.

[Trooper_One]

I agree with you. I always thought raising the level cap was a huge slap in the face to the players who spent time to get decently geared. Got a full set of EWH armor? Screw you, it's all obsolete; now you have to grind even further for Super-Mega-Elite-War-Hero armor. Meanwhile, the players who haven't hit 50 yet (yes, these players do exist) now have to wait even longer before they can have fun with their friends at the end-game.

 

I really dislike the idea that "the game starts at level 50," or in this case, now 55. That, to me, is such a huge failure of game design. You make levels 1-54 just feel like a speed-bump. How are people supposed to sit back and enjoy the story when you keep pushing the "reward" of the end-game further away? Why not make some new content for new players? Add some new FP's for lower levels, make even some new story quests involving companions more.

 

Not to mention that raising the level cap creates an endless feed-back loop. Players want more progression, so you raise the level cap to 55. Players get to 55, get bored, and now they want ANOTHER raise. It just keeps going until eventually the level cap is raised to some horrible number like 135. Why not focus on new ways for level 50 players to improve their characters without invalidating the work they already done? Why not encourage players to make alts and have fun with another character? One MMO I played (that is now sadly gone) had a unique way of approaching this. When players hit the level cap, they could participate in a new system that would augment their character's abilities greatly, however it required them to go back and do a lot of the older and newer content in order to progress. Instead of invalidating everything they've done, they kept adding new, completely optional ways for people to expand their characters. Don't want to participate? That's fine, you'll still be viable for most end-game content.

 

I can put up with this level cap raise, just this once. However, is this becomes a habit of new expansions I don't know if I can stand the constant invalidation of my work to get the "end-game" gear.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Trooper_One
Added an example

[TheDurken]

I'm looking at Rise of the Hutt Cartel as the "Free-2-Play" expansion, leveling the field for new and old players so I agree with you that this once this is okay.

[Master-Nala]

I agree with the OP. I dearly hope we don't see any/many level cap increases after Makeb.

[AnonJoen]

It's will be raised to 55 in ROTHC, a raise 5 levels in a year ain't bad imho. Edited February 11, 2013 by AnonJoen

[TheDurken]

It's will be raised to 55 in ROTHC, a raise 5 levels in a year ain't bad imho.

Whether it's raised 5 levels or 10 levels or even 1 level doesn't make a difference. It still invalidates all previous end-game progression and renders it obsolete. And again to clarify, I'm not expecting them to magically remove the new level cap they intend to add in Rise of the Hutt Cartel. I'm making a suggestion for future expansions after it.

[Jableson]

It may be a huge slap in the face to those of us who have been either pvp'ing or running OP's since release, indeed i feel the slap as well. However, the new level cap is more of a statement of creating a "new game" and thus a realistic strategy as to "wipe the slate clean" for people who are just recently reaching current level cap.

 

Also, im not %100 sure about this, but I thought i heard that the class story from 1-50 will not be continued again and a new story will begin anew. This story will be universal for all players per faction (imp/rep)

[JacksonMo]

Whether it's raised 5 levels or 10 levels or even 1 level doesn't make a difference. It still invalidates all previous end-game progression and renders it obsolete. And again to clarify, I'm not expecting them to magically remove the new level cap they intend to add in Rise of the Hutt Cartel. I'm making a suggestion for future expansions after it.

 

No, sir. Sorry. It actually doesn't. It's not the level increase that does that, it's the ever increasing gear.

Remember when full Rakata made you something? You were in the best gear in the game! Now full Rakata is like "meh, I'll send it to my alt for his companion to wear"

But then, each new Op is harder than the last and needs better gear.

[Turshek]

Raising the level cap doesn't necessarily mean old stuff become obsolete, it's a choice. They could shift end game content and gear 5 levels higher by using the math formulas they already use to calculate HP, damage and stats.

 

Just because some MMOs chose a way it doesn't mean all have to do the same things.

[TheDurken]

With not increasing the level cap you can keep the old gear progression in place. Fresh 50s would raid old content until their gear got good enough to go to the expansion planet.

 

EDIT:

Raising the level cap doesn't necessarily mean old stuff become obsolete, it's a choice. They could shift end game content and gear 5 levels higher by using the math formulas they already use to calculate HP, damage and stats.

 

Just because some MMOs chose a way it doesn't mean all have to do the same things.

Re-tuning all old content is also an acceptable solution, but I feel requires much more work than what I posited in the OP. Edited February 12, 2013 by TheDurken