Please, please, PLEASE, DO NOT RELEASE SL before you reach the 200 level cap. Increase the levels as is being done, NW is already a done deal…release AI around 125…then once the 200 cap is introduced, release SL with that. If you want people to have the TRUE classic experience, you’d wait til 200(ATLEAST 150)…be smart. People have thrown $100’s at you for this to happen…DO NOT RUIN IT!!!
-yours truly
a fan of a great game
And you want to throw in the newbie players to SL at 200? They will miss a big part of the game, storyline, etc. Shadowlands is a beautiful place to explore, do quests as a team… in opposition of RK where you just grind borgs/ mishes/ dynas for XP.
I’m all in favor of skipping SL, AI, LE and LoX all together
A pure RK server would be awesome <3
i believe that if it is pay server all datadiscs shoud be implememt as soon as possbile for example lvl 50 other we will loose so many time basicali for nothing.
example if they release SL on LVL 200 all will go strait to Inferno and mis tons of Sl quests or or we will be doing them against grey mobs with zero effort and miss all content
same for LE levels on lvl 200 u can have done atliest 60-70% reses
AI levels are separeted but most of froob chars strugling with weapons on lvl 130+ couse there is nothing. where u can move ut
Assuming they will release all content over the course of a year (which I think is too quick), that gives us 2/3 months per expansion. This means it is unlikely we will see lvl 200s before SL unless they rapidly increase the level cap changes.
1 year is also kinda too short imo, I’d rather see 6 months between each expansion. BUUTT there’s no point sharing our random ideas here since they won’t be listened to.
And at that point, it would be no different than the current server. SL basically curb stomps RK’s content, so screw that until the max level cap is reached, or the high level RK content might as well not exist.
SL is fine and all, but it can entirely be its own game. I have no idea why they released it as a parallel experience, but it is something a lot of players resent.
As long as I have enough character slots, I really don’t care the pace they open up expansions.
I will likely roll a new toon with each roll-out, so that toon can go through them all from start to finish. 
They are listening though. In his latest stream, @AndyB talked about how there’s a very divided opinion from players on the level cap increase speed and specifically the release of Shadowlands. Today’s increase to 30 and the release of NW was also brought up on that stream for players to comment on.
Whether or not they do the things you (or I) would like them to do remains to be seen of course, but they’re definitely listening to and acting on feedback.
A staggered SL release would be good, maybe:
Nasc at 30
Ely at 80
Scheol at 120
Not like there’ll be pocket teams early on due to lack of OSTs, but would be nice to do the level-relevant content without mobs being grey (ie. waiting till 200 to do early key quests) when you could get xp for them.
While I respect players hating Shadowlands, please also understand that some of us loved it also. Farming pocket-bosses and symbiants was a game in itself.
I think the main problem was the skewed xp between the two. They -should- have upped the mission xp rewards somewhat to compensate and create a relevant alternative to the heckler-grind. Or kept the Shadowlands xp down (but that makes SL unattractive overall and a bad sell, so not a good commercial thing).
My suggestion ( I believe I posted this way back when) is to introduce a “paid sub only” item that increases RK xp rewards considerably. Lets say by 50-100%. It could be as simple as a buff item that gives you an 8 hour buff for xp in RK content. And only available to paid accounts (more incentives to pay for the game). Keeping Funcom having a profit on AO is important to us as players also as it keeps AO as a viable business. I dont want to see AO shutting down like Asheron’s Call or many other MMOs.
Love that idea, it’s the sole reason rk is mostly left to rot these days (expect for instances and toekn farming)
Of course, I totally understand that people enjoy Shadowlands. I only talk about it a lot because I’m passionate about it, not because I think I’m right and someone else is wrong 
My opinion is that we lose a unique experience by releasing Shadowlands before we’ve been able to experience high level RK content such as Mercenaries and the Diamondine Soldier in their own right. These things ard hard and require lots of people, and my expectation is that there’s not enough people interested in doing it if the loot is obsolete.
Low level Shadowlands content isn’t invalidated in the same way if it’s released later, since people can start alts and experience it then.
and where u see the problem in shadovlands ?with lvl cap u cant do everithing in SL u will do just some XP get some stuff symbs maby eapon and that over what u can do in nasc with lvl 30. then u can go farm RK dungs. same way in elly about lvl 80. etc
there is so many people and RK is that large to feed all of us with lvl cap. look at the totw for example in firts days there was like 19 GS if u died somethere whole team have to go out couse there wasnt chance to geto same GS same it will be in totw etc when will be lvl 100 or 120 u will need to do 30 or 40 mish to get 1 lvl there is jus few borgs or places where u can leveling and that all will be inta farmed by players
in past times there wasnt any lvl cap so peoples had warious lvls so peoples farming warious places but now everione farming same stuff same places.
I 100% am for not releasing shadowlands until level 200. If you do, it completely ruins the experience of the awesome raids that are RK only (HI, Mercs, Notum Soldier, etc). Those things will all become trivialized and there would be no sense of accomplishment to doing it.
Glad to see people on the same page as me. Thought I was crazy for thinking this… AI/NW: no one minds these being released pre-200 since they literally enhance the RK experience. As stated before, SL is its entire own game. Hell, they could just do an SL slow release as year 2 and make even more cash.
agreed. If you love shadowlands, go play the live game, where it has already been ruined by that fantasy garbage. This is the notum wars server. the good server. there is a reason more players enjoy the rk19 server. no sl. no ai. no le. no bs.
It would be interesting if the shadowlands release and level caps aligned with the level caps for automatic progression through the zones. I.e. if you want to get to scheol, you have to do the progression quest, not just level a bit.
SL needs to be released with the lvl 50 cap so that classes like NTs can get their nanodecks and be somewhat playable.
A staggered release should be fine, but DON’T wait til most players are TL6/200
Shadownlands have beautifully designed areas. you don’t want SL to become a run speed buff race til penumbra.
People should definitely be able to spend some time in Elysium and Scheol (mostly scheol, it was just like an interactive loading screen before)
Yes, we still have the levelcaps so I dont see a problem with SL starting at lvl 50.
The RK2019 server was never promoted as a AO Vanilla experience, but as a progression server that would release all the expansions over time.