Though i don't like FC, i think they did alot of things right with the expansion and agian it shows that booting Gaute and putting Craig in charge was the best thing to do. Horizontal progression instead of vertical is a very good move, though compared to adding and balacing 5 more levels is also sort of an easier way out. Still i think that these are 2 things Funcom definately did right.

Of course, this way people will complain that it is content they should patch in for free -if the expansion would contain 5-10 more levels, other people would complain like "bah, 5 levels more of the same, need more 20-80 stuff", "they can't even balance the current 80 levels" or "only 3 new zones to level 80-85 in??" etc.

Also no problem with not having new classes on my side, but i think they missed a great chance to add another "more basic" healing-class, adjust it with BS, PoM and ToS and sort out healing altogether a bit.

But as history repeats (and moreso in FC's case), i doubt that this addon will come in without any major disappointments or heavy technical difficulties. If FC still suffers from the megalomaniac illusion that AoC will make it to the XBox360, there is a great chance they will ruin the zone design again by dividing everything in tiny boxes with constant loadingscreens as it is now. In case they dropped that idea, they may enlarge the environments for the better and collect another bonus point on my list.

Anyway, AoC's progression and FC's moves are somewhat interesting to follow compared to the copy+paste stuff other companies spew out for years and again.

Originally posted by Elsabolts

Originally posted by shzrocka

In my opinion, these are changes that should be happening with patches over time for free. Seems like to me that funcom is trying to make more money by selling 6 (not so major) updates packed in a box. This purely my opinion, take with a grain of salt.

 

This person gets it. Besides paying for the last year of beta testing Funcom has figured out away to make a few more bucks out of ya and your still paying to beta this game. This time around folks are gonna be more cousious and may not come back as much as they want them to. I believe also you will not get to see expansion till you've already paid for it. Anyone doubt it will not come with alot of problems that disrupt the game. NO!

Jihad works both ways

Regarding having to pay for the expansion, while no real details have been released about this, I'd expect to pay about $30US for the expansion with the convenience of an online download (check out LotRO's and other retail expansions to see how it works).  I'd also expect a "gold" game box to hit the shelves for about $50 (possibly less).

I'll bet you a case of your favorite brew that these two guys quoted here, serving whine with their cheese, haven't actually played AoC in many months and are merely continuing to parrot the woes from last summer.

The reality of life, to clarify and to inform you both, is that AoC actually reached release quality some months ago and if you were playing the game now, you'd know it. 

Your arguments are soo last year and stale, no longer apply and are therefore irrelavent.

I'm delighted with this news myself, as AOC's problem with me is that it's a vertical climb without a great deal of breadth...I've returned to it every few months, but no matter what class or race I start with, the path after Tortage has been the same...starting in Cimmeria until I hit the quest ceiling there, then moving on to Aquilonia, then having to ferret around for quests in Stygia until I'm high enough level to tackle Tarantia, then on to Fields of the Dead.  More variety will be welcome!