Long Term Goals for an Evolving Neversummer IV

[Monkey]

The developer team has been hard at work in recent months, making some great improvements. No doubt they have a very good idea of what they're doing and where they're going with the server. I'm starting this thread to share my own thoughts as to what would make for a better and more stimulating playing experience and a more manageable server.

I have a lot of ideas here, far more than can practically be implemented in just a year or two. Some might not be possible. Some will not be in line with what most people would want. Hopefully the developer team and community members will find some value in my ideas and will share some of their own concepts for the long term evolution and improvement of Neversummer IV.


General Areas for Improvement
-More PvP options and interactions, some of which will provide significant XP and useful items
-A more stimulating and interesting leveling experience
-More roleplaying within factions in terms of how you level, the tactics you use, and the enemies you fight
-Less time spent on tedious tasks like crafting and gear transfer
-Protection for newbies from PvP harassment while they learn the server and level their first toons
-More incentives and rewards for skillful cooperative play
-More fun and interesting options for solo play
-Players encouraged to build and play in all factions to gain a broader experience of the game, allow for balanced PvP at almost any time and create a better sense of community
-Players could have their own preferred factions but there would be less polarization and animosity than we currently have under the MASL/AORK/TCNC split.
-Competitive rivalries among private (invitation-only) clubs of veterans would substitute for the current factional rivalries.
-Fair and balanced arena competitions and relic events between the private clubs
-More flexibility and creativity brought to building and party composition
-Buff underplayed/inferior classes and races and nerf overused/overpowered ones to promote a wider range of useful tactics and workable builds for PvP and PvM


Wipe Policy
-One or more wipes will probably be necessary to implement major changes.
-Notify the community well in advance of a pending wipe (1-3 months) so that there is less frustration over time wasted on leveling new toons and farming gear.
-Enable extremely easy leveling and guaranteed drops pre-wipe so that players can complete their builds and enjoy PvP and high-level PvM pre-wipe.
-Players can experiment with different builds and tactics while planning their post-wipe builds.
-Scheduled leveling post-wipe so that we can rebuild the server quickly and have more fun doing it.


Increased PvP Opportunities
-Suitable targets (level range and faction) appear on player list as Dislike and are red when seen on screen.
-Unsuitable targets (newbies, lowbies) appear as Neutral or have some other distinction.

Daily Relic Wars
-No permanent factional alliances
-Work within a faction to win and control relics and gain leveling bonuses.
-Relic wars take place on a set schedule, with relic locations frozen between wars so that defenders don't need to break up leveling parties and others can log on during set times for more PvP action.
-Epic defenders spawn during scheduled relic wars. Epics drop good level 30 items.

Faction Based Raids
-Occurring when relics are frozen between wars
-Mid-level faction jobs and quests.
-No epic defenders present, but XP and quest rewards available for both raiding and defending players.

Arena Battles:
-PvP competitions between private groups
-Mini-Relic wars on single maps
-balanced team battles-to-the-death on small maps

Relic Events:
-Lasting 2-3 hours with some sort of scorekeeping system
-Balanced teams of roughly 6-10, each representing one faction only.
-Some events could also involve temporary alliances between factions.

Level Based PvP Good vs. Evil:
-Guilded Evil toons able to kill guilded characters of all alignments and factions for fun, gold and XP.
-Guilded Good toons able to kill guilded evil toons for fun, XP and the greater good.
-Level range limited to equivalent gear levels to prevent lowbie PKs by higher level toons.

Level Based PvP among Factional Rivals:
-Shadow Legion vs. Northern Coalition
-Mystral Ascendancy vs. The Circle
-Ancient Ones vs. Last Alliance vs. Ragnar's Kin
-Bonus XP for PKs against rival factions.
-Additional quests raiding or defending against rival factions.


More Interesting Leveling:
-No XP loss on respawn. The time loss with respawn is enough of a penalty. A rapid de-leveling alternative would be needed through Devil Angels.
-Scheduled leveling periods where each week players are encouraged to level multiple toons in a given range to help people find parties, level faster, and create more PvP opportunities.
-A more natural progression
-Easier leveling 35-40, combined with gear farming.

-1-10 Factional Leveling: More pre-epic maps in conflict with XP bonuses for leveling in ways that help your faction's NPCs (like protecting Nymphs and Pixies from Goblins, or helping Disciples defeat Coalition forces). More challenging tactics, with more rapid advancement from skillful play. Most basic factional jobs completed while leveling to 10.

-10-20 Cross-Factional Leveling: Areas more easily reached from Avendell (as a central meeting and binding point). Each leveling area favoring a different type of party (different mob-densities favoring different sized parties, different sets of monsters favoring different builds within the parties). Areas improved and expanded if necessary to be more balanced and follow a more natural leveling progression along the lines of Ogre Pass to Giant Caves - Improve Bandit Camp to Bandit HQ, Gnoll Fort to Chief Gnork, Yuan-Ti Wastes to Queen Ssylla, Ash Mountains to Mezolith Caves, Haddon Mirk to Ordean Caves, various crypt runs.

-10-20 Factional Leveling: Quest-based raids of other factions. Defense against quest-based raiders. Example: a Shadow Legion quest could offer large XP rewards for assassinating a certain NPC in the Norther Coalition. Northern Coalition toons in the appropriate level range might get tipped off by the server and could earn XP rewards for intercepting and killing the assassin. Substantial XP bonuses and quest items would be given for completing quests. Another Example: A party of level 16-20 Last Alliance characters is given the quest of killing NPCs in the Lower Stronghold, RK Headquarters and other NPC areas of RK. Substantial XP bonuses for both NPC and Player kills and special level 16 drops only available for questing raiders. RK toons of appropriate level tipped off by server and given XP rewards and faction points (redeemable for items upon achieving certain ranks) as rewards for defensive PKs.

-20-35 Cross-Factional Leveling: Epic maps for leveling cross-faction. Frostdale 16-25, IoD and Skara 20-30, Elemental Planes 25-35. Tougher challenges rewarding cooperation and well balanced parties. XP formula favoring 4 and 5 person parties over very large parties. XP formula favoring success against higher CRS and bosses over grinding lower CRs.

-20-35: Factional Leveling: Relic Cradles and Nexuses (20-30), Planar areas for each faction similar to Dwarves Home, Forest Home, Shadow Plane, Dragon Eyerie (25-35). Cross-Factional raids on these areas. Players can't attack their own faction's nexuses or planar areas, but the can receive XP and factional rewards for defending them. Factional quests for PvP and PvM quests similar to low level jobs.

-35-40: Cross-factional leveling: Hardest epic areas would feature a wider range of level 30 and 35 drops. CR bumps for better XP even with 40s in the party, allowing gear farming and (easier) leveling to occur at the same time. An increased number of lvl 40 boss drops would encourage high level parties to challenge themselves in pursuit of the best gear.


Factions
-Permanent alliances removed.
-More stylistic differences between factions on a strategic and roleplaying level.
-No more unique prestige classes, but substantial job and favored class bonuses for one prestige class in each faction.
-Handicaps or bonuses for other classes.
-Each faction with a clear roleplaying focus and unique playing style.

Northern Coalition - The Good Fight Against Evil
-CoT (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-Paladins, CoTs, Clerics
-Limited Focuses for less powerful Wizards: Enchantement, Divination, Abjuration
-Good only
-Job bonuses for Wis, Cha and choice of Str or Dex
-More Solo play quests with lots of self-buffing options.

Shadow Legion - The Evil Pursuit of Wealth and Power
-Assassin (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-Rogues, SDs, Blackguards, Fighters, Monks, Arcane Archers, Sorcerers, Wizards all enhanced
-Soloing toons with self-buffing abilities and items
-Job bonuses for Dex, Int, Cha
-Evil only
-Improved pick-pocket rewards.
-XP bonuses for solo kills.

The Circle - Protecting the Balance of Nature
-Shifter (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-Party balance and improvement: Buffers, Tanks and Hitters
-Druids, Clerics, Bards as party support casters
-Shifters, Barbarians and Rangers for tanking/hitting melee purposes
-Good or Neutral
-No mages
-Job bonuses for Dex, Cha & Wis

Mystral Ascendancy - Magic is Might
-Pale Master (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-All types of casters: Clerics, Druids, Bards, Sorcs, Wizards
-Job bonuses for Wis, Int & Cha
-Job items with bonus spell slots and/or spell focuses
-Pale Masters, Arcane Archers for tanking/melee

The Last Alliance - Human Control of Aetheria
-Purple Dragon Knight (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-Humans and Human sub-races only, all classes available (except Arcane Archer and Dwarven Defender)
-Leveling bonuses for attacking other factions.

Ancient Ones - Dragon Domination and Rule
-RDD (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-Versatile, all classes and alignments available, but with minor job bonuses.

Ragnar's Kin - Dwarven and Gnomish Independence
-DD (favored class with complimentary skill bonuses from jobs)
-All types of Melee builds
-Bards and Clerics for buffing the melee builds
-Job bonuses for Str, Dex, & Con
-Job items enhancing weapons and armor


Gear
-Ability gear capped at +7 so that you need maximized spells or faction bonuses to consistently cap at +12.
-Best of class items are epic boss drops. +7 and +8 weapons, +7 Ability gear, all the best Skill gear always dropped by CR 35+ bosses.
-CR 35+ bosses all drop multiple useful items, but each toon can only use those items if he/she helped kill that boss.
-Non-boss drops cap at +6 for weapons, +6 ability and skill.
-Collect a small, weightless, non-transferable item off a boss drop which allows a toon to use that boss's gear so you can't just farm the best gear for other toons and players. Also serves as trophy to mark each toon's accomplishments.
-Gear and gold banking stations with the ability to deposit or withdraw gear through NPCs in all faction capitals, crafting stations and neutral areas.
-CD Key based access to banked gear, gold and items, so mule logging, dual logging and map holding not required on transfers
-Rapid regearing through gear banking system
-Low level drops automatically ID'd and stacked in inventory

Crafting
-Crafting stations connected to gear banking system.
-Crafted gear capped at lvl 30.
-Arcane crafters able to add an elemental damage type to a generic or crafted weapon to make those items more relevant.
-Craft multiple items at once to save time and reduce server load.
-Low XP cost for crafting level 30 gear and crafting advancement so that your crafters aren't always ECL 0 and don't stop leveling at 30.
-New players in particular should craft to get level appropriate gear and explore the different factions.
-One crafting trade in each faction. Encourage players to build playable crafting toons in all factions:
Fletching - SL
Leather - TC
Tailoring - LA
Armor - RK
Exotic - AO
Martial - NC
Arcane - MA

Gear to balance overpowered attacks
-More Spot & Listen gear, less HIde/MS for spotting without having to commit too many feats
-More Fortitude gear for Stunning Fist
-More Will gear for PDK/Dragon/Barbarian fear
-More Acid protection for Acid arrows
-Level 30 Bludge/Cold armor and shields for Ice Storm spam
-Better Discipline gear


Guilds:
-Each toon may join one guild within its faction
-Multiple guilds in factions could favor different classes or objectives
-Open to all, no invitations required
-Join like you'd join the purist guild, by walking in and talking to an NPC
-Membership provides bonus items
-Membership marks you as a target in PvP, newbies protected if they don't join
-Bonus XP and items from Quests, Crusades and Accomplishments

Private Clubs:
-Similar to the current guilds
-For people who enjoy playing together
-Invitation only
-Join at creation by placing a tag on character name.
-Cross factional to provide a greater variety of party composition options
-Organized events and arena-based competitions among the clubs, 4v4, 5v5, etc.
-Also, single faction team events to provide additional challenges
-Simple gear sharing system within clubs - CD Key based


Races and Sub-races

For a bigger picture view:
-ECL 0s as the basic races, receiving no additional benefits, good for new players or someone wanting to rapidly build a party support toon
-ECL 1s and 2s with lesser benefits and minor penalties, each sub-race benefiting more standard builds that need less help (basic Tank, Cleric, Bard, Mage, Hitter)
-ECL 3s with the most significant benefits and some significant penalties, some specialized bonuses intended to help underplayed but important builds (Assassins, Druids, Harper Scouts, Archers)

Or... smaller tweaks to the current system:
-Drow = Evil only, but new or enhanced ECL 3 races needed for Good and Neutral builds to balance Drow/Githyanki on the evil side.
-Ideally 2 each Good, Neutral and Evil only ECL 3 races.
-One planar and one Elven ECL 3 for each alignment.
-One ECL 3 suited for casters (Drow, Moon Elf?, Aasimar?) and one for melee builds (Githyanki, Githzerai, Azerblood?).
-Keep Svirfneblin (keen sensed, small stature) available for all alignments.
-Genasi lowered to ECL 1 or given better bonuses worthy of an ECL 2.


Tomes
-Easier for veterans to find
-Book farming wouldn't be a necessary or desirable part of the building process
-Maximum of +10 total ability boost per toon to discourage endless farming of books and prevent overpowered individual builds.
-Tomes no longer drop in easily farmable, pre-epic leveling areas to keep those areas open for leveling and free of high-level farmers.
+2 tomes drop with much greater frequency in epic leveling areas and in relic chambers off of epic defenders.
+4 tomes drop on CR 35+ bosses.
-Drop rate scales up with monster and boss CR.


Role of DMs
-Help newbies learn the game and find parties
-Fix bugged toons
-Prevent abuses and exploits with warnings and (if necessary) bans.
-Reward skillful play that also benefits the server
-Facilitate group play by porting party members and issuing challenges
-Supervise events and competitions
-Level and play toons along with the rest of us to better understanding the players' perspectives
-Recruit and train more DMs if necessary

Role of Developers
-Create and post a long range plan for the evolution and improvement of the server
-Level and play toons along with the rest of us to better understanding the players' perspectives
-Recruit and train more developers if necessary
-Gradually implement changes to make the server more fun, stimulating and manageable
-Solicit feedback from the players on major changes
-Give adequate warning when a wipe is necessary to make the server more fun
-Ensure that the pre-wipe period is a fun time of experimentation and exciting play

Role of Players
-Have fun
-Follow the rules and the spirit of the rules
-Treat other community members with respect
-Look for ways to give back to the community and help in its growth

[LinuxPup]

1. Limit 20 cleric levels for SL? You realize cleric is about as natural a fit in SL as possible right? Hence the temple to Lolth. It's like limiting druids from TC.
2. Leveling is already super-fast compared to its original intent, which was the idea that few if any folks would ever make it to max level.
3. XP loss is necessary to make life worth living
4. SL is already evil-only.
5. Removing restrictions on prestige classes reduces the uniqueness of each faction
6. I would love to make Drow evil-only (boo Drow paladins), but it would screw some factions unless we added a new subrace to counter-balance it. Same with Duergar.
7. If Genasi were ECL 0, who would want a plain human? Really they should be subraces of half-elf instead of human, but that's another story

I like the idea of XP rewards for relic capping, but there would need to be lots of checks in the code to ensure it doesn't get abused.

[Monkey]

1. I have this vision of SL being mostly a faction for people wanting to go on solo missions and do evil deeds. It would be a very different SL than we have now. Individual toons would be powerful self-buffers who were hard to hunt. They wouldn't benefit as much from playing in parties and receiving buffs. SL society itself would be somewhat dis-functional with Evil doers fighting amongst themselves for power and wealth. The Cleric/Bard level limit probably isn't a good way to reduce the effectiveness of SL parties. I'll delete that suggestion so that people don't fixate on its flaws.

2. The original intent is misguided then. Most players plan builds for 40 and focus on getting their builds to 40 so that they can increase their effectiveness in PvP. Trying to get toons to 40 causes a lot of burnout among newbies and existing players. Leveling should be a fun and rewarding experience when done well and it should be difficult and frustrating when done poorly or alone (leveling SL assassins solo would be an exception to that).

3. XP loss is pretty much irrelevant in the bigger leveling picture, but it's a major pain at 40 if you accidentally get de-leveled on a raid. This can cause bad feelings among players and headaches for DMs. Removing the XP loss penalty would make the server more manageable, IMO.

4. Correct. I'm just spelling out a vision for how all the factions might look relative to each other and how they might enable different roleplaying and strategic objectives. This vision may not be what the majority want, what developers are willing to adopt, or what's best for the server. It's just a concept that I felt was worth sharing.

5. I agree that uniqueness among the factions is desirable. So is the ability to be more creative with builds. I like the unique prestige classes as they are now. It could also be interesting to build those prestige classes within other factions, with limitations making them somewhat less effective in those factions.

6. Yes, I agree that balance would be needed if Drow were Evil only. Almost all of these suggestions would be complex and take a long time. A long term vision and plan would be helpful for the community and developers. Creating that plan in itself would be complex and could take a long time.

7. Genasi are rarely played. They could use some ability bumps or an ECL drop to make them more attractive. Humans are pretty much only played by newbies who don't know any better.

Please don't take any of this as being harshly critical. This is an amazing server and the result of a tremendous amount of developer effort. Hopefully some of the ideas I posted are useful or helpful to the developers and interesting for others to consider.

[Amoenotep]

i like how evil SL is too evil to work in a group coherently and also too dumb to lvl up a caster past 20 caster lvls

drow-non good aligned
cot-good only
delete AO..cuz who the hell likes dragons anyway

[cRaZy8or5e]

Ummm love the fact that your posting ideas.

except the idea that would denote lowbies as neutral. No thanks! Lowbies must live in fear. It's what makes going to avendell exciting. There's always that element of risk involved. Plus there's always great pvp that comes about because somebody *cough* burrahobbit *cough* started killing lowbies on the mtn.

[Monkey]

i like how evil SL is too evil to work in a group coherently and also too dumb to lvl up a caster past 20 caster lvls

Individual toons would have to be more powerful or elusive than those in other factions. They'd gain XP especially fast for solo kills and evil deeds.

Maybe it's not workable, but I think it would be fun roleplaying to have SL parties head out on missions together and have them backstabbing each other along the way to try and claim full glory for themselves. They could get half their victim's loot and consumables if they PK one of their own for added incentive.

[mining]

I think this is cool, and a delicious post full of ideas. Some of it isn't likely to happen - but I don't care, I love getting suggestions, I love getting more perspective. If it plants the seed of an idea, and that sprouts - even though its not directly from your suggestions, its because you suggested it that we have cool feature X.

Things I like:

-More PvP options and interactions, some of which will provide significant XP and useful items

Some of this can be done by players, (i.e. fury fight club) but I'm certainly looking into cool stuff to do here.

-Buff underplayed/inferior classes and races and nerf overused/overpowerd ones to promote a wider range of useful tactics and workable builds for PvP and PvM

This is what we do

[$chase$]

wipe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[frogofpeace]

Role play is EXACTLY the reason we need Rogues in NC. How can we be good only without diplomats? And a rogue would allow us to always converse wit Twig in 3rd person only. Carthago delenda est!

[Amoenotep]

wipe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

seems legit...

[Monkey]

Lowbies must live in fear. It's what makes going to avendell exciting. There's always that element of risk involved.

40s and other high levels harassing lowbies is lame, IMO. The people doing it are often attention seekers and when others to log their 40s to hunt them down it just feeds their desires.

Evil lowbies hunting other lowbies would be a roleplaying challenge, and good lowbies hunting those evil lobies would be fun as well. Developers could encourage that in the way the game identifies targets and gives XP. NPC "spies" could pop up anywhere in-game, giving evil toons assignments to go kill X-player or wipe out X-party on X-map or tip off good toons about evil lurking on X-map. Perhaps that could be done by DMs popping in and noticing the potential for good vs. evil interaction, the initiation of some job or quest, or in some other complex, automated way.

[Rufio]

40s and other high levels harassing lowbies is lame, IMO. The people doing it are often attention seekers and when others to log their 40s to hunt them down it just feeds their desires.

I think it is a really bad mistake to judge the character of a person based on their in-game actions when those actions are well within the rules. This is the number one reason why people don't get along.

[Bargeld]

Individual toons would have to be more powerful or elusive than those in other factions.

I already am

It's difficult to cater to players with a single new lvl 12 toon, and at the same time, a 5 year veteran with 30+ toons and all the books/gear they've collected along the way. The XP curve is one of the tougher areas because the newbies want a lvl 40 tomorrow, and the 5 year plan guys have 40 toons and nothing left to build cuz they've built it all. So fast XP is not an issue. Personally, I can't even tell the difference with mining's recent changes in XP. A) I haven't played enough toons since then to gauge it, and B) once you hit 35, it seems about the same as it used to. But I know 1-15 can be done in like 5 hours now with storebought gear! I think xp curve should remain the same-ish.

More stuff blah. Of course we would all like new NPC's and automated crap. We all want relic events, spontaneous events, soccer, all that crap. But I like to think that we get as much as the higher ups are able to dish out. Development and events only happen when there are people around with the will and time to do those things. DM Kim was awesome like that, for her time here that I've seen, she played very often, and she enjoyed spontaneous events and longer-term planned events as well.

The only way I see this stuff happening is if more 'staff' or 'moderators' were added to do it. I've volunteered to dev where I think I can. I don't know jack about how to program this game, and I haven't actually completed anything I've been given, but I've tried and I hope I still can in the future. Let me just say that it's tough to try to manage that stuff with multiple people unless there is a high level of commitment.

[VagaStorm]

Individual toons would have to be more powerful or elusive than those in other factions.

I already am

It's difficult to cater to players with a single new lvl 12 toon, and at the same time, a 5 year veteran with 30+ toons and all the books/gear they've collected along the way. The XP curve is one of the tougher areas because the newbies want a lvl 40 tomorrow, and the 5 year plan guys have 40 toons and nothing left to build cuz they've built it all. So fast XP is not an issue. Personally, I can't even tell the difference with mining's recent changes in XP. A) I haven't played enough toons since then to gauge it, and B) once you hit 35, it seems about the same as it used to. But I know 1-15 can be done in like 5 hours now with storebought gear! I think xp curve should remain the same-ish.

More stuff blah. Of course we would all like new NPC's and automated crap. We all want relic events, spontaneous events, soccer, all that crap. But I like to think that we get as much as the higher ups are able to dish out. Development and events only happen when there are people around with the will and time to do those things. DM Kim was awesome like that, for her time here that I've seen, she played very often, and she enjoyed spontaneous events and longer-term planned events as well.

The only way I see this stuff happening is if more 'staff' or 'moderators' were added to do it. I've volunteered to dev where I think I can. I don't know jack about how to program this game, and I haven't actually completed anything I've been given, but I've tried and I hope I still can in the future. Let me just say that it's tough to try to manage that stuff with multiple people unless there is a high level of commitment.

I think with the new xp system, 1-25 is faster, 25-35 is a bout the same, and 35-40 is slower than it used to. This might not be how it is, just my perception of it.

[Monkey]

I think with the new xp system, 1-25 is faster, 25-35 is a bout the same, and 35-40 is slower than it used to. This might not be how it is, just my perception of it.

I think your perception is correct. The formula yields significantly better XP at all levels and CRs have been bumped in some high level areas. Those are things I've advocated for in the past, but there has been an unintended consequence - people don't try as hard to create big parties. A party of 2 can level as fast as a party of 4 did before. Less cross-factional leveling takes place and fewer parties shout "LFM."

The days of huge parties swarming over the gauntlet side of DE to get people to 40 are gone. That's probably a good thing, but it's been replaced by AORKs pumping Sabar's and MASLs working the same two maps outside Sky. A fast moving, but mind-numbing grind to 40 has been replaced by something much more mind-numbing: Buff-lure-pounce-score big XP-rest-buff-lure-pounce-score big XP-rest-buff-lure-pounce-pump the map for more. Both alliances are more than willing to accept TCNCs and newbies into their parties but you don't see them shouting LFM unless they really need more. You do see a lot of Gratz on 40 shouts though because they're churning out 40s at a much faster rate. Personally, I don't seek or join these parties unless there's a someone on who I really want to help get to 40. The tactic itself is too boring even if I'm the one who gets to do the luring (and I really try to speed things up when I do).

Occasionally a core group of TCNCs works through the high 30s and we'll typically work our way from DE boss to DE boss. That's much more challenging, fun and interesting from my perspective, but I wish we'd visit all the toughest areas on the way to 40 instead of just the Dragonlands side of Dragon Eyrie. That's the main reason for my suggesting that 35-40 leveling be connected to gear farming:

-35-40: Cross-factional leveling: Hardest epic areas would feature a wider range of level 30 and 35 drops. CR bumps for better XP even with 40s in the party, allowing gear farming and (easier) leveling to occur at the same time. An increased number of lvl 40 boss drops would encourage high level parties to challenge themselves in pursuit of the best gear.
-Ability gear capped at +7 so that you need maximized spells or faction bonuses to consistently cap at +12.
-Best of class items are epic boss drops. +7 and +8 weapons, +7 Ability gear, all the best Skill gear always dropped by CR 35+ bosses.
-CR 35+ bosses all drop multiple useful items, but each toon can only use those items if he/she helped kill that boss.
-Non-boss drops cap at +6 for weapons, +6 ability and skill.
-Collect a small, weightless, non-transferable item off a boss drop which allows a toon to use that boss's gear so you can't just farm the best gear for other toons and players. Also serves as trophy to mark each toon's accomplishments.

Some of that probably seems like it would require too much effort from the developers, and a gear overhaul would probably require a wipe. To me changes along these lines seem necessary to get players to challenge themselves, explore new areas and really earn their gear and levels. Without such changes most players will stick to a small range of tactics and leveling areas to get xp in the easiest and fastest possible ways.

Most people don't really consider the big picture of how the server is structured and focus more on the minor details of what each class and feat can do. It's the fundamental structure of the server that really shapes the behavior of players and the overall experience of playing it.