I want to start by saying that I have and always will enjoy slayer/explorer areas. I love them in DDO or any MMO I play in. There is something about open exploring areas without being forced to run full quests/raids all the time. It is a nice breather to have within a game.

Now with that said, I am wondering if the Dev's could re-evaulate the current explorer areas to perhaps improve upon them some. For me, I feel the current explorer areas feel entirely too small, do not offer enough to make people excited enough to actually go into them other than to head to a quest or loot run a named mob. Also, I think it is time to rethink taking out the Bounty Bag "quests" that was removed about a year ago.

To address the size of the explorer areas, I suggest stretching each one out some to make them larger. Now there will be some complaints about having too far to go within them to get to the quests located in the explorer areas which can easily be addressed by adding a teleporting npc and teleporting locations within the explorer area just like GH has. Each one, depending on their size would have 1-4 port locations scattered reasonally within each seperate area. Also, it might be interesting to add wandering bands of natives drow, caravans or other "safe" spots within each area so players can sell/repair, bind, or have a safe spot to go to without having to exit the area if they wish to.

Adding new natural or artifical things such as waterfalls, rolling hills, thick jungles, torn down buildings or even more of the farms/farmhouses for the explorer areas closer to Stormreach. Be more creative with it.

I would also consider releasing the explorer areas to everyone. A player will still have to buy the quest pack attached to a certian explorer area if they wish to get the kill counts XP bonuses, rare named mob XP bonus, discovery bonus, access to quests or raids within that explorer area pack. Yet all players would be able to go to any explorer to kill, explore or even take on a named mob they find. You would still have to meet to normal requirements such as level restrictions of course. In addition to opening explorer areas up to everyone on a limited basis, I'd also have the Dev's reconsider the Bounty bag mini quests again.

Those Bounty bag quests when they came out was not a horrible idea in my opinion. What I think made them not played or enjoyed as much as they could have was the fact that they were stuck in lowbie areas. That combined with most players at mid or high levels did not help make it useful to even bother playing them. This was before DDO went F2P so there was less new players than we have currently. Another test of them might be in order since we have alot more new players to run them but more importantly, spread these bounty type quests throughout all areas of the game. From low level to high level. I can honestly say that I have no issue in running those solo mini quests like LOTRO has. Collect these items, kill X amount of these creatures or talk to this npc type quests are not as horrible as people think they are.

This does not mean at all that I am encouraging them to abandon making normal full quests or raids. Nor does this mean by adding these solo quests that they will take the full quests out of the game. I am asking them to add to the game by reconsidering the Bounty Bag quests again. I also think a number of these bounty quests should be spread out among every quest pack to fill those quest packs out some. Personally these new 4-5 quest packs just is not justifing enough into me getting them considering how little we are actually getting from them. Fill them out more, please.

Finally, why not change the treasure bags dropped by mobs within explorer areas? As it is now, we have a very small chance of getting anything for our efforts when we kill mobs in explorer areas. The collectable bags are nice and all but you only have a small chance of getting them, if one even drops at all. Why not have each mob drop a treasure bag that has a random collectable in addition to misc low base value loot that we just sell off for a small amount of plat? I find it hard to believe that once we kill a mob that there is nothing on them we can salvage off them, even if it a peice of hide, a partial broken sword, a few coins, or a trophy item that could be used to make a special and unique magical item, starts a one-time solo quest or something that could later be used to take to an NPC who turns the item into a trophy to put on display in our guild airship. Furthermore, if no one wants to bother grabbing these new treasure bags for whatever reason, no one has to. Leave them like some people leave treasure bags now. If a person is in a group, they would exactly like planar shard treasure bags, meaning no ninja looting them since anyone who clicks on them...gets something for it.

Thanks for considering my ideas.