Level packs (Boost to 50, Boost to 100, Boost to 150, Boost to 199).

[Malosar]

What does this say about the game anyway.

'Hey look, AO has such a dull, boring and monotonous level grind that once you manage to get through it once you can skip the whole thing altogether!'

You could say that about pretty much any MMO. There are the players that don't mind the grind and might do different things each time. And there are those who despise any sort of grind whatsoever and just want to get to the max level as quickly as possible. I played WoW for a year and there's always players moaning about the grind to 80, because that's all they want to do, hit 80.

Having this option won't introduce that as it's already there, it's inevitable with an MMO.

[Omutb]

Whilst the idea of boosts seems a bad one, it really depends how much they get used.

Requiring an existing 220 on the account at least limits it to paid players, but even then nothing is forcing people to use them.

Sure, some will, some wont, some cant.

Tbh, would probably be better if you could buy an "item kit" for certain levels, containing some suitable armor and nanos etc, rather than just buy levels.

[Tinypain]

imo, give xp-stims to those who already have a 220/30/70 and skip level packs.

Apart from that fixing the grind is great.

This! Give an XP boost system to those who have a 220 on an account for any newly rolled toon. Non-tradeable. It would assist leveling so much, though you'd be forced to solo or level with others that use the xp stims because you'd level too fast with people who don't have them.

Also with the changes to disable XP so gained xp isn't lost anymore it's simply placed into your pool this would be MUCH better than any level skipping. Think of all the level restricted content exists? Rather than skip tot3, foremans, CoH, s10, and s7 you can simply disable xp, let it all go to pool, get your stuff and then be on your way when your ready.

That or you force people to level the old way with this new "convenient" system because it skips major content people enjoy. FC, you put all that work into making that content, and adding new content. Don't skip over it with a purchaseable booster. I really think an XP stim idea would be good. Like a clickable item that puts an xp gain on you for 4 hours, unlimited use. 100% or even 200% xp gain.

[Autohead]

This! Give an XP boost system to those who have a 220 on an account for any newly rolled toon. Non-tradeable. It would assist leveling so much, though you'd be forced to solo or level with others that use the xp stims because you'd level too fast with people who don't have them.

Also with the changes to disable XP so gained xp isn't lost anymore it's simply placed into your pool this would be MUCH better than any level skipping. Think of all the level restricted content exists? Rather than skip tot3, foremans, CoH, s10, and s7 you can simply disable xp, let it all go to pool, get your stuff and then be on your way when your ready.

That or you force people to level the old way with this new "convenient" system because it skips major content people enjoy. FC, you put all that work into making that content, and adding new content. Don't skip over it with a purchaseable booster. I really think an XP stim idea would be good. Like a clickable item that puts an xp gain on you for 4 hours, unlimited use. 100% or even 200% xp gain.

While this sounds good in principle, if they were to go this route instead of the purchaseable level boosts, they should change the xp cap on mobs. I don't want to see a 100%-200% XP gain go mostly down the drain because we're capping out at 10% gained per mob (on the same mobs we've been capping at 10% gained for years). They should fix level 9 & 10 researches while they're at it.

[Cyberleet]

Experienced players are a resource in AO too

[Djiax]

I think it would be nicer to allow character sales, along with character transfer form account X to account Y, and that FC charge a fee on that. Characters would be traded for ingame credits beetween players.

[Xyphos]

I think it's a terrible idea, and yes I know it requires you have a 220 main. But everytime a 220 levels an alt, he helps some newbies along away. We won't have that anymore

/agree

most of the game content is the grind between storylines (if the player bothers with the story at all)

I for one, who has a 220 main, would prefer the option of speeding up dialogs in quests so when I grind a new character with a group, I'm not forced to re-read everything I already know

[Chrazy]

Why does having one 220 make you eligable to skip 200 levels of a completely different prof that you have no idea how to play? So everything will be easier for already subscribed players and new players won't have as much people to team leveling up. Incredibly bad idea in my opinion, not like it's even hard or takes time with all the new dailies. /signed (person who has 9 220's before the dailies were introduced).

[Youfirst]

New idea...10$=22, 10 bags of all nice items(alphas, acdc, rbp, igoc, etc, etc, etc), full research, ai 30=> OMG, you rule, finsihed the game in 10 minutes...

DO NOT IMPLEMENT(not lvl packs, not my idea either!)

[iolanda]

I dont agree with the level packs also , on the up side i find it silly that people dont realise this is a open announcement that sounds something like this " Omfg give us all your money so we can shut down the game and retire " .

Anyway put my name on the list .

[Demoder]

I think it's a good idea. New people won't be plagued by crazy power-levelers as much as before, thus can enjoy the content the way it was meant to be played.

Today, you can afk-level from 1-220 if you really want. And you'd be a noob.
The new option of doing this is optional; It's not like everyone will be doing it.

I welcome this option, as it would let me skip the parts of the game I have done a billion times before. Depending on the pricing, I might boost a character to 150, for then to play it fully from there on. Then again, I do have 4 220's and one 219, plus quite a few other alts in all TLs.

tl;dr: Let veterans use this. Requireing one lvl 220 makes sense. If people want to be noob, let them; They can be noob without this feature too. Only differene is who earns the $$$. I much prefer it being funcom than some credit seller.

[Mastablasta]

I think it's a terrible idea, and yes I know it requires you have a 220 main. But everytime a 220 levels an alt, he helps some newbies along away. We won't have that anymore

Why? Can you put down any evidence to support that in the future noone will ever level an alt the old way because they can pay 20 dollars/euro or whatnot to get a lvl 199 character? Everyone? Really?

I could see myself using the 199 option maybe once, because I really loathe the stop between 125ish to 200 where nothing at all happens because everyone's busy powerleveling in inferno teams or kite teams with hecklers, and noone wants to do anything but these things, try to find someone for Dark Ruins or Sector 10 team, it's impossible. Noone wants to do it and those who do just want to do it for their own gain. Character development in this range is also largely dead.
Maybe after rebalancing this dead range will be revitalised, in which case I would be more inclined to do it should I choose to level an alt. Not that I have any room in my account... wtb buyable character slots.

[Youfirst]

I could see myself using the 199 option maybe once, because I really loathe the stop between 125ish to 200 where nothing at all happens because everyone's busy powerleveling in inferno teams or kite teams with hecklers, and noone wants to do anything but these things, try to find someone for Dark Ruins or Sector 10 team, it's impossible. Noone wants to do it and those who do just want to do it for their own gain. Character development in this range is also largely dead.

That needs to be fixed, not lvl packs added imo.

[Mastablasta]

That needs to be fixed, not lvl packs added imo.

Rebalance may, doesn't really change the fact that I've done the things a hundred times

Not that levels are a horrible grind compared to the equipment grind that comes after. That's the real problem and that's where you get stuck. Which buying lvls won't really touch, it's only a matter of a few hours played time you save.

[pharmguy]

So why not fix the grind instead of implementing this silly idea. The game should feel nice and smooth in its level curve which it pretty much is until you get about 125 then its just a major grind. Part of this is that Scheol is completely bugged and virtually impossible to level in at a decent rate combined with the fact that it take a ridiculously huge amount of xp to ding once you reach those stages. I'd much rather see a good few million xp scraped out and Scheol fixed then have to put up with silly level pack idea.

If u really want to stop people using inf at 160 the simple way is to adjust the team level so 220 can only team to 205 or 200 w/e is deemed appropriate.

[Mastablasta]

So why not fix the grind instead of implementing this silly idea. The game should feel nice and smooth in its level curve which it pretty much is until you get about 125 then its just a major grind. Part of this is that Scheol is completely bugged and virtually impossible to level in at a decent rate combined with the fact that it take a ridiculously huge amount of xp to ding once you reach those stages. I'd much rather see a good few million xp scraped out and Scheol fixed then have to put up with silly level pack idea.

If u really want to stop people using inf at 160 the simple way is to adjust the team level so 220 can only team to 205 or 200 w/e is deemed appropriate.

The grind has been reduced greatly. It has become a lot more pleasant and fun too. But it still doesn't change the fact that some of us have done it a thousand times and there's a lot of downtime between special encounters that are good to level in like ToTW and Dark Ruins. So if you want to pay not to be a part of this downtime, then you're free to do that. Again your post seems to largely base itself on the idea that everone is going to spend money on skipping things instead of leveling the oldfashioned way. And as you can see, the character levels you can buy are all going to be within leveling ranges of the annoying parts, so if you want to you can participate there after.

[Ciex]

Im not sure if last changes are fun. Its in fact easier to level but sl quest chains are done solo most of the time (at last i havent seen even one person lft for em, using neutnet etc.) and we are still playing multiplayer game ... at last thats what they say ... We just lack content at tl3 and tl4.

I dont like this level pack idea, veterans werent playing alone, thay made teams. It could be "zomgz ev0l" teams with OST but at last they were teams. Ability to skip leveling will mean that newbies and those who cant/dont want to use this new marvelous in game store will feel even more lonely than they do today. Im leveling an alt nowadays, got to lvl 30 yesterday. I check lft from time to time even tho i dont need any team at all and its just empty. Ive found 4 people yesterday in a most common leveling spot for that level. At last 2 of them were weterans. Take us out of this leveling business and you end up with empty area and empty lft. Once a new player joins and sees something like that he will just move to another game.

[Youfirst]

Veterans....what is a veteran? I have 2 x 220s, 1 has full alphas and such...Am i a vet? NO! Do i consider myself a vet? NO...maybe at least only change the definition of vets...at least that. 1 x 220, 30, 70 is not a vet imo.

Edit: Oh, you've gone through that 5 times so far? 20% of me agrees that you can buy a lvl pack...but 80% of me still agrees that if you don't want the grind, nobody's forcing you to roll a new toon.

[Butsut3kkai]

Giving vet players an item that give 200% xp (more or less just for idea) that can be equipped and no drop is a better idea than level packs...of course nothing forces us to buy them but all players that have more than 2 220 chars can t say it s not a horrible temptation...

With a big xp boost item, we ll be able to play our reroll the regular way, without the grind negative effect. Furthermore with the future GOOD idea that will put xp in pool while disabled. I made my first toon th regular way, stuffed it from subway to alphas and enjoed it. My 2 nd char were leveled a little faster than previuous one. i PLed 3rd and 4th char like crazy to skip the heck/mish grind. PL, isn t more fun than heck grinding, but at least it s faster.
I really would like to go back to sub/totw/foreman etc, spending IPs at each new levels with backpack full of nanos i ll need during my progression, with each new level a new opportunity to cast a new pet/nano etc. just for the nostalgy But it s way too long

So, i don t agree with the buyable level packs, but i have to say i d really appreciate a major xp boost item, so i ll be able to play the normal way, team with (newcomers) people, help them. I need to die on the road to lvl 200+ because i tryed a too high lvl mobs with the wrong tactic or weapon etc. I need to feel the fun i had on my first char, but not the pain, because my yellow bar will always grow up at a really good speed.
So, NO for level pack but BUMP for less grind/holes in content. Don t want to play and level on a broken stairway.

[Gatester]

As someone who levels characters constantly, I have to say a boost would be nice. I could care less about this view that players grinding hecks is such a precious fundamental of AO that it should be preserved in its entirety, and if players are able to get to certain levels faster then perhaps certain ranges can increase in population.

Especially at 220, where raids have gone from over 100 players have drastically decreased. To say this is merely a result of players quitting is a false assumption. Not everyone can grind out several 220's a year, and gets bored of the 1 or 2 220's they finally acquired after a year or two of playing. If I had more 220's, I would raid more, it is a very simple fact.

I saw an argument that it would kill BS ranges and laugh. Afterall, who cares about smashing pvm noobs who are just leveling in BS? No one I would call a high caliber or professional player, just a pker with a kids mentality burning ants with a magnifying glass.

If you think new players learn from us while leveling too, you are blind to what really happens. New players do not learn when they are escorted by someone elses 220, or get in an org where they just grind out at kite hill. What gets new players to learn, just as I learned 5 years ago, was relying on my own steady understanding of the game through trial and experience. If I had trouble, I asked in OOC and got some answers, but each day I discovered something new that made me into the player I am today.


As a middle-ground, I will propose an alternative suggestion that would be accessible for players. For every 220 a player has, a new boost level will be available to use at any point. In otherwords, if you have only 1 220, you can only boost characters to level 50, if you have 2 then 100, 3 then 150, and 4 allows you to boost to 199. You would have to purchase each booster pack, so it would not be a commonplace thing for every player to be quickly leveling.