The Shadow of Odyssey or The Shadow Odyssey – Sony Online Entertanment [SOE] hasn’t picked an actually title for it yet, and I can’t seem to get any concrete information.

So here is my list. Who knows some of these might actually happen. While I can say that I have almost as much experience in games and the fantasy genre as some of the developers out there, I don’t work for Sony. (Or sadly, Have any programming or design experience – yet anyway)

This is fairly long, I've attached the more tag so I don't completely run anyone else’s column right off the next few pages... Continue on, Said the spider to the fly...

1) Increased Level Cap:
I don’t think the expansion will appeal too many with out a level increase; there just isn’t enough to keep older players and older accounts in the game. Most of us have been playing since day one and have numerous characters in the high level range. We don’t need to run another character through levels one to whatever, unless that content is exceptional and can be considered to be fun and not overly repetitive.
Personally I’d hope for them to add 20 levels to all the main areas: Adventure, Trade skill, Guild and 50 or so points to a unique AA tree. These levels would have to be harder to gain then the previous levels of course. No more mistakes like Kunark where a level 70 player could get to level 71 in 5 hours, and level 80 in 50.
A level progression curve that would take an average of 20 hours of play time per level would easily keep even the most hard core players busy for at least a little while. The inherent ideal of course is to keep people playing, when players tend to run out of things to do, we tend to get bored very quickly

2) New Class instead of a new race:
I know that SOE constantly says that they’ll only introduce a new class when all other classes are balanced. But that leaves me to wonder. Why are the developers trying to suddenly balance some classes on test that are known to be weaker then other classes out there? If all the classes suddenly become considered acceptable to the players then there wouldn’t be an excuse to not add a new class.
If you do some digging through the eq2 player’s website you can find all kinds of interesting information. Kunark introduced the Sarnak as well as an area to die for newbie area that offered equipment that benefited some character classes well into their 40’s (mages mostly, Melee will need to upgrade sooner). However if you focus on the number of new races that were actually made, I’d be willing to be money that there were more new dark elves made then Sarnak – And they were rushed over to the Timorous Deep to take advantage of the excellent starting area.
That leaves the age old question – Will we get a class like the Beast-Lord? Probably not, but I would say that we might see a unique class introduced to eq2.

3) Collectables:
Personally I would love to see expert collection quests added to Sinking Sands and Kingdom of sky. This would balance out the other expansion with the two recent expansions as well as bringing a larger amount of players into the zones, if only to farm. I do have to admit however, Collectables (Called Shiny's in game)do tend to kill groups, but the lotto feature introduces in game update 44 at least gives us a chance to win it, even if we all die.

4) The Introduction of Hotspots to Eq2:
Let’s face it. Some of the zones we do have are so under utilized that you can literally go hours with out seeing another person. Everfrost and Rivervale come to mind. In the original EQ, hotspots were created to bring players together via, better then normal experience bonuses added to the zone with chances at better treasure drops and loot drops for that hotspot area only. Traditionally the hotspot would range from level 10 to a just about the previous level limit (In eq2’s case, this would be level 70). I remember spending hours in Dulak’s Harbour, and never lacking a group – In fact, people would generously fight over a healer…

5) More Instances aimed at early level tiers:
Right now if all the instances we have in the game are aimed at upper level characters, Instances and some of the zones are very unfriendly to those just entering the tier. Most famous of all is Karnor’s castle, a dungeon aimed at level 70 to 74 players, but difficult even to groups in the high 70’s. Equipment and masters drops in this zone are very, very poor even with recent boosts to both equipment and experience. Compounding the fact that this is the only low level dungeon / zone for those of that level and you can see how there are issues with almost every aspect of those levels, Lack of masters, lack of equipment, and to top it all off, a lack of grouping forcing many characters to solo until at least 75 or 76 before being invited into some of the higher level instances. Chelsith, Chardok and Maidens still manages to kill groups of level 80 experienced players on a fairly regular basis so anyone under the vaulted level will most likely not be invited to go along with groups, again forcing them to solo even more.

The trend for instances and group dungeons in the upper levels becomes widely apparent with the release of Echo’s of Feydwer [EOF], where it would be the norm to have various dungeons and areas for players in the mid level range. Some would argue that this trend instead begins in the kingdom of sky era, but when you have multiple dungeon area’s and heroic zones for those from 60 to 70, and area’s that any level 60 player can get in on, the argument becomes a moot point. It was only in EoF, that the player base started to see instances and dungeons aimed at the higher level characters, I.e. Level 68+. This is partly due to the fact that EOF didn’t really provide older characters with anything new to do, other then level the new race that came with the expansion. Many of the instances and dungeons related to EOF are aimed at the high level or maximum level characters for that zone.

One thing that I would dearly love to point out – In regards to Karnor’s Castle if some of these instances and “group” area’s are added into the game, please test them with base tier characters (level 70; for a 70 – 80 instance, level 60; for a 50-60’s instance). Personally I’d use a mix of lower to mid range characters in a mix of treasured and legendary equipment with spells and skills in the adept to master range. Not all players are raid equipped and mastered out at level 70.

So that’s it. My personal wants for Eq2’s next expansion. I’ll probably add a few more as time goes on. Feel free to add comments to this, or discuss it in our forums.