Firstly thank-you everyone for taking the time to vote. I had not expected it to hit 300 or even 200 but yet again the community always surprises. Below I’ll briefly summarize some of the key suggestions and if I miss anything take no offense but feel free to post it in the comments section.
- New Zone/Mission Pack (5-10 Missions)
This will likely bring the greatest influx of new/old players back into the game. It is the easiest content for them to market as the game is known best for its story. Also it is the most overdue source of content for the game so its would appear to be a number one choice for Funcom. There are however a couple major roadblocks. Firstly, the bar is set very high which means that almost any story content produced by their limited resources will be harshly judged. Secondly, story content is very short lived meaning that once it is exhausted there is not a great deal of meaningful replay-ability. Third, it is not a very lucrative form of content in itself especially for the amount of time and work that would be required. These three issues can be addressed by something Nytha mentioned:
“Realistically, to have a viable future, Funcom needs to do all 5, and pretty soon before more people give up.” - Nytha
This sparked an idea of closely staggered content starting with an initial story release. By following up or pairing with an existing/new raid or dungeon (I personally would suggest the Flappy raid since its already been ported to SWL) they would offer new re-playable content to players that have returned. It would also spark some competition and add some value financially as players find a new reason to create/level new and existing gear.
- New/Existing Dungeons/Raids
I combined these two for the purpose of discussion since I think they both represent essentially the same form of content. Its the foundation of what a lot of players do who stay beyond the story and also a big part of what unifies cabals and circles of friends in the game.
“I’d like to see more content like faction missions, OD or DA (or even raids or dungeons) with scaled, selectable difficulty that can be run with anywhere from one to five (or even ten) people. One scaling system that works consistently and is applied consistently.” - Aeryl
A point brought up by Aeryl is the use of there scaling system and I would hope to see this scaling system in much of there future content as it deals with the issue of over gearing the content. Perhaps with a few minor tweaks and the option to select a desired level of difficulty but that is a discussion for another topic. Also interesting about this concept is perhaps the potential of opening new or existing instanced missions to include a group option with optional difficulty scaling. They would act as a sort of mini dungeon and hopefully have rewards that are appealing enough to warrant doing them as a group.
“I also agree on opening up the dungeons to allow for lower IP levels to enter if it’s a pre-made group. I understand why this was initially not allowed, and not wanting the power-leveling, but there is ZERO incentive for higher-geared people to do lower level dungeons.” - Serressia-Steinvell
This comment raises a valid concern with the current dungeon/raid situation though and it is regarding IP restrictions. One exciting aspect of Occult Defense is that I can take someone brand new to the game and carry them up to a difficulty that is both rewarding for them and me. It would help new players feel included without having the daunting feeling of waiting months before reaching the IP of there cabal mates. I understand that part of this is to give incentive for opening caches but I fear most will walk away before taking that path.
“Anything which actually got more tanks/needed roles into groups would be a good thing. It’d help people who felt they needed to regear, because the fastest way to level a new item is dungeons.” - AWOL
Also a valid concern is that adding more dungeons/raid will not fix the current state of the Activity Finder. A large part of this is due to there being a shortage of or lack of incentive for players to take the role of Tank. There are possible solutions to this whether it be increased rewards for the tank role or some achievement based incentive as existed in TSW where you simply had achievements for utilizing Activity Finder.
- PVP Battleground (Fusang/ElDorado/Stonehenge)
This is a difficult subject for me to discuss as what I want and what is realistic is very conflicting. PvP was everything I played for in TSW and there wasn’t a day that went by where I didn’t have a new build or set of gear I was trying to make to counter something. But SWL and TSW ability and gear wise are two very different beasts so my fear has always been that one day they give back El Dorado and I realize it just isn’t what it once was. Some memories are best left as memories. PvP needs its own community of players that enjoy the PvP and it of course hinges on players competitive drive. There is of course a lot of players I believe that would enjoy seeing Fusang return as a persistent PvP ground and I think it would be successful in that it doesn’t require set numbers to start a match. But at this point I’m not sure that it is a good investment financially for Funcom or population wise for the interests of players. If as mentioned previously IF Story + Raid/Dungeon is introduced and successfully boosts the population then yes I’d love to see them consider Fusang or something similar as a follow up.
- Ability Balance/Revamp
Where do I start with this option. I think there were probably many of us that realized in the back of our minds that its something critical to SWLs long term success but we play games to enjoy content and expect balances to be something that’s just done as needed during game development. This would be a large undertaking and perhaps more then anything would provide minimal financial gain to Funcom (at least in the short-term).
Though it was not discussed in the Poll I do feel that the Tank/Healer and Defensive glyph situation is something that should be addressed especially if a new raid or dungeon is introduced. It may very well give players new and old, a reason to revisit there dreams of being a healer or a tanky tank.
- TLDR
Step 1: Story/Zone Hype and Release
Step 2: Raid or Dungeon Release (Possibly Flappy since its all ready in game)
Step 3: Ability Revamp and potentially revisit Activity finder IP requirements and provide incentive for the use of activity finder through achievements.
Step 4:…
Step 5: Profit?
The floor is all yours feel free to discuss.