I thought new chapters were for ascended people?

I thought new chapters were for ascended people? I thought the whole reason for the level cap was for the new content?

Well Jeff Strain says otherwise.

Lions Arch District 1 international:

A guy asks if you will need to go throught chapter one to get to chapter 2 with a new player.

Jeff Strain says no you wont...

As long as you dont have to make a new character for the chapter 2 stuff i dont care.

Yes but think about it. That means that there will be beginner content in chapter two. Chapter two is just going to be another huge PvP tutorial for new players.

Storywise, you probably won't. But just because you can get run to Droknar's doesn't mean that they make it easy because you're new.

Hmm you have a point there. I hope you are right.

I remember that day when I rented Return of the Jedi before A New Hope and the FBI arrested me! That sure wasn't fun!

Wait, that didn't happen. Why should you be forced to do 1 before 2?

It'll probably be like Luclin for Everquest or Ruins of Kunark, they introduce a new character class and you play out the expansion with it from there (hopefully there will be no DROKNARS to run too though and the arenas in it will be more balanced) . There will be level content for ALL levels with the next chapter, though it would be nice to have a complete expansion just for ascended characters. UW/FOW is pretty boring now. And Sept 21st is still a long ways away IF we get the SUMMER update even then.

Creating an expansion increasing levels to 40 would be nice also like Neverwinter Nights did with Underdark That would mean EVERYONE would begin on an even keel gaining levels to 40 and finding the new skills (more grinding yes) since there's no major beta like there was before the game released and betas just get too much of an advantage in my book.

Level cap wasnt going to be raised i thought, as it would be disruptive in the pvp environment. Another 400-500 permenant hp could easily ruin things considering how the post 12 skills curve out.

Oh I'm not saying increase level cap in the next expansion Phades, just a suggestion for something into the future. Everquest didn't have a level increase to 75 for 5 years, they came in increments, I think it was Kunark that brought it up to level 60 then for several expansion up to POP I believe it was nothing then POP brought it to 65, then the last expansion brought it up to 75, they also started out with HELL levels and if you think GW's is a grind you shoulda played Everquest when level 30, 35, 40, 45, were hell levels and took double expeience or more to level out of them. There were several in the 50's as well, but, they finally took out all the hell levels thank god.

Somehow I believe if they don't increase the caps at some point even the pvp is going to become stale and boring, nothing new to really do, same ole build, same ole teams with the same ole setups. By increasing the levels it will add yes more hit points but also add more damaging skills to balance out the added hit points. Could even seperate the Arenas from 1 to 20 and then from 20 to 40 if/when they upped the levels/skills, so those that are stubborn can still have their level 20 arenas and those that want to increase their grey matter and decrease their boredom can move on up the ladder and levels and go adventure for new skills.

Neverwinter Nights is great with the 40 level cap now. 20 just wasn't enough, but, things just get harder and tougher when you advance in levels past 20 and of course it makes for a larger world that modders can create from level 1 to level 40. And clerics rule Dungeons and Dragons. ;O)

POWER TO THE CLERICS!!!!!!! But, with this cap, ascension will truly be able to mean something....Idea:you MUST ascend before going beyond lvl 20. This will make acension do something, like being epic in D&D.

Yeah that'd be kewl I'd /sign that.

Simple reason is this You have another 2 classes of skills to unlock.
Might as well do it on fresh content.

2 classes who says?

mmm ,more 6 classes of another race ... that would be cool
they said that new expencion will be the same in content , so i expect 6 more professions

No imagination here. None.

It'll probably work a bit like this:
Check a box on character creation called "Start in Chapter 2" or something like that, and you start as a level 20 with some skill points in the new first city. A handful of you may remember in the Betas that one could elect to start as level 20.

And why must ascension mean anything? It's not like it's difficult to do it.

I would be surprised if there weren't 2 more professions in the next game. I think the PVP world will refuse to buy chapter 2 if there aren't new professions. New maps wouldn't be enough.

You dont know hell for getting exp when you are literally fighting other people for monsters in a popular area when it is only the base game and every 5th level was an increment higher than the previous 5th level. Then there were worse hells post 50 in the kunark/velious era, where 59 was the worst and still fighting for monsters in velks and (goat but cant remeber the name of the lame froglock place with the dragon in it). You also had that double exp loss crap post hell levels, to which i have no idea if they ever addressed or fixed/adjusted. Post luclin was all about grinding out AA points on overly easy monsters that had one or two special traits for what seemed to be 10x the exp and the same, if not less hp than velious monsters and virtually no resistances. 1 bard 3 wizard 2 cleric groups doin shrooms on crack 3 ftw <3 teh deep. The planes were even faster experience, making the actual curve up in levels easier.

My point was, i dont feel like hunting down skills for yet another damm character. The exp gain is fast in this game, but the skill gain is far slower the closer you reach the top, especially with the almost camp like system with the random assortments of named monsters giving me EQ flashbacks of phinneous spottings for epic weapon camping popping in and out to see if he was there every hour every day for weeks. Yes i mastered underwater basket weaving, er tailoring... -_-;

Maybe a whole new world. In that world ur able to go beyond lvl 20. If u would raise the lvl cap of kryta quests would become to easy.

Maybe the summer update will tie the storyline to Chapter two. Cant see you being able to move between the two chapters and then bring weapons content back into chapter one. Will be interesting and im going with starting from scratch with new char for new chapter

Different content should not mean better gear and skills that what already exists. It would be no different than allowing 20s into the low level character pve arenas.

What's to say Chapter 2 won't raise the level cap? What's to stop A.Net from allowing *everyone* to level up to 40 whether or not they purchase the expansion?

So the Chapter 2 areas might only be accessible if you actually buy chapter 2. As I remember, when EQ released Kunark and Velious, only people who bought those expansions could actually go to those areas. But everyone had to download a huge patch with updated graphics for the new race, class and items. The new zones dropped items similar to same level zones in the old world. They just looked new and different. Some of the older zones got an update as well so new content could be enjoyed by all. And no one overpowered anyone else on the PvP servers.

Could A.Net do something similar? Yeah they could. Will they? Probably since they want everything to be equal. It would not be hard to patch everyone's client to update new quests, items, and skills in Chapter 1 to remain competitive with Chapter 2.

They'll probably include (a few) low level areas in the expansion, but I recon it will most likely be for high level characters... and the "start with chapter 2" option seems plausible too.

if they are to increase the lvl cap, make *better* skills or something like that then they must seperate the higher lvls with better stuff from the lower lvls. something like a post-post searing.
otherwise the game would become rather unbalanced.

problem with post-post searing is that you would need to work through the origional story.

all that i can forsee is maybe access to Cantha, new classes and maybe a new race (very close variant on the humans).
i should think that there will be more in the way of customiseable chars and new armors and weapons.

none will be better than before though.

I think it's reather useless to say "Ppl have to ascend to access chapter 2" i think it's more usefull to say, it should only be accessable from Ember Light Camp with a ship or such... This is more or less like only let ascended ppl in, but it's a little more than that...

Just think of all the "n00bs" running around in the new city / cities / towns spamming and just acting like fools...
For most of the "n00bs" it's even too hard to finish Thunderhead Keep or the three missions after...

Okay, might be a little unfair, but what sense is there in a new "chapter" when you don't have to finish the first one to get access to the second?!

People just HAVE to achieve something to get access to new areas... And making it only accessable by ship from Ember Light Camp keeps the runners away as well... same with desert... ppl cannot get there with only a runner... or at least it's hard to run all the missions before

ANet has explicitely stated that they will not ever raise the level cap beyond 20. This isn't a level grinding game, so there's no need. The only reason people want more levels is that they're used to there being more levels.

Forget levelling. It's meaningless in GW. When you're at 20, you're mature and ready for the real content.

Really now?

Question
What is the level cap and will it ever be raised?
Answer
Currently the level cap is set to a maximum of 20. Once you reach Level 20, you will continue to acquire skill points and attribute refund points, but your health and mana points will be capped. At this time, there are no plans to raise the level cap. If we do make a change, or if we have a higher level cap in future chapters of Guild Wars, we will be sure to share the news in an interview, on our various fansite forums, or we will make a post about it on our official site, www.guildwars.com. Please keep an eye on the site for future updates.

Maybe they will increase the lvl cap, but possibly you need to Ascend in order to go past 20 (wow, maybe it will have a purpose now other than giving my 1.5 skill points.....).

Anyways, I'm forseeing that people will need to have existing characters to play Ch.2. I'm thinking since it's an expansion, not a new game, that there will be an area in Ch1 that leads to Ch2. It makes sense in my head. Maybe add a mission to somewhere in Ch1 that brings you to where Ch2 will be set. Also, as with other expansions, you'll need Ch1 to play Ch2, won't you?

Er ok, so thats why people in pre-searing cant get to level 20. You still need something to get exp on in the old content. It would also mess with old characters as people who just continued to grind out skill points, would very easily be insta-leveled by point totals, since there is no ceiling currently. The current game isnt really balanced for post 20 play. Even if they did go higher, they would have to change the skill point curve post level 12 attribute level for skills, in addition to adjust how much hp are gained per level, gear requirements and so on. This game format really is not comparable or scalable to "other" mmo games, due to the styles involved. Even so, raising the cap wouldnt do anything for the game, because you are limited in how many skills you can actually bring. Sure you could be a generalist more easily, but the specialized people would still be more effective characters.
The question is, do you wish to rebalance the entire existing game?
y,n,i,a,f

Bah, that's just an open ended support response. I've seen other quotes stating that it won't happen, just need to do some digging.

Besides, raising the cap would ruin the game, unless of course is was cosmetic and meaningless.

This isn't Diablo.

Because yeah, discussing the raise of level cap on Guild Wars has anything to do with Diablo.

It wouldnt do anything useful for the game, other than force changes in how the game scales over time.

Of course it does, in the larger scale. People are used to the Diabloesque level grinding required to become more powerful. Higher levels = more powerful characters. That mentality carries over into GW and is difficult to shake, so someone say, for example, having trouble in PvP might think that they'd do better if their character could be stronger, hence they need more levels.

However, more levels would screw things up royally without the massive rebalancing mentioned earlier. Health and Attribute points tie to level. More levels and you wind up with characters with healths so high that they have all superior runes (yet the health not to care) as well as all 15/16 in their stats.

> Insert BAD IDEA stamp here <

Unless they raise the level of attributes from a cap of 12. Raising the level cap would be a good idea, but at this current time or any time in the near future, there is still plenty that can be done to make the game more interesting and challenging without the raise of a level cap. Even so, it would probably be up to level 25/30 anyway.

Would still screw things up in the long run. We all saw what protective bond did at level 17... imagine the un-yet-discovered side effects of a level 20 something or other?

I'm having a really hard time seeing how this in any way could benefit the game. Seems to me to be nothing more than ego-stroking.

Besides... up to 25/30 now... how long before people want 35? 40? Hey, and even 50!

By the time there is no other choice but to raise the cap, the writing will be on the wall anyway. GW will be dead before anybody asks for higher then that.

Also leveling up would cause those "max" damage/mod weapons useless as the quest reward weapons while going through the game in a pve environment. Then you would have to have new and more potent armors to offset the new damage trying to eat away your larger hp totals. It is nearly endless.

You change the level cap, you basically change a major fundamental balance mechanic within the game.

So then would it be safe to leave the concept of increasing the level cap as a bad idea all around?

Seems once you present the inherant problems with doing so, the supporters of it fade into obscurity.

Yes it would be a bad idea, unless they decided to really work at rewriting the mechanics to work around a level higher than 20. It'd be a last ditch attempt to bring some life into the game really, but I am confident ArenaNet could pull it off properly when the time comes.

For now, I would be against it.

I thought of ways to increase skill cap too and all of them seem to have unbalancing issues.

My favorate was this:

-Increase Attribute point cap (not skill lvl itself) to 220
-You pruchase 1 attribute point with 1 skill point
-The extra 20 attrabute points could not be invested in attributes (oddly), but in skills themselves.
-Each skill can have up to 3 extra attribute points invested in it.
-With each point invest it increases cost/cast/recharge of that skill
-Maybe also, brings your health down -5 points. Thats -15 points for 1 skill with +3 extra attribute investment.
-1 point in a skill would cost of your choosing
5 extra energy
1 extra second cast
8 extra second cooldown

Example:
Lighting Orb with +3 extra points in the skill itself cost:

20 cost
3 second cast
13 cooldown

For extra damage.

----

There are several ways you could work the idea. I tried to keep it minimal with systems already in place.

But lets say you want to go from lvl20 to lvl40.

-You could replace the addition 20 attribute points for "lvl" points
-Lvl points can be refunded in the same manner that attribute points can. (to mantain build flexablity)
-PvP created characters would start with these 20 points from the beginning lvling them to 40.
-PvE characters would need to spend one skill point to lvl up, however there would be an npc that lvls you in this manner with each attendtional skill point you earn from there on after excussable only after you beat the game. (so you cant jump from lvl20 to lvl40)

This system^^ is not as simple as the other one, but its the same idea..just adding extra numbers to lvl.


I figured that some skills would benefit from this more than others, but even still, the troubles of balance seems to be a consern to folks.
Though its my consern too, Im one of few that believes some extra power and higher lvls could benefit everyone and matain balance without the need of expansions. Though, Ive had my doubts because of the tricks that people have exploited.

GameAmp:
One of the common gripes I hear from Guild Wars gamers is the inability to create more than four characters with a single account. With such a low level cap and fast game progression, why did Guild Wars feel that they would limit the character slots to four rather then increase it to six and allow everyone to make a primary profession with each character on their account? In addition, will the options to have more character slots become available in future expansions?

Guild Wars:
Four seemed a good number at the time of release. Making decisions is part of an RPG, we all know that. No one can expect a limitless inventory, for instance. We like four, but we're considering the possibilities of more in the future. I believe that when the next campaign comes along, we will see an increase in slots. No idea by how much, but we wouldn't release a new campaign and ask that you wipe a character to play it!


Do I get my cookie now?

from NCSoft rep Alex Weekes

notice the single level of content


Almost all of the content in the game and in the future Chapters is only available to Ascended characters, which means we don't have to worry about providing different levels of content. All the good stuff will be available to everyone. It's not our intent to force people onto the levelling up treadmill, so the level cap in Guild Wars is almost meaningless.

he also states there will be new *common areas* where chapter 1/2 people can mingle

EDIT

here is the common area info

However, if you choose not to purchase a chapter, you will still be able to play the chapters of Guild Wars that you own, and you will have common areas in which you will be able to play with and against your friends who have purchased the other chapter(s).