Edit: Due to the disclaimer at the end about why I am unable to finish my thoughts keep in mind that even the PR has a balance in my head that can only be mentioned once other areas have been defined. Don't shy from your ideas of course, but realize until I get the full thing out I may have some of the ideas that have been suggested in that time, so it still 'may' work!
Ok well here it goes. I'll start with PR because that is a neutral area.
It's a huge vamp from devs side but I'm open to ideas from other people and I'm open to implementing (all of them for pr diversification) or thinking up new ways to balance PR.
What I think should exist for PR:
This involves a respec and could 'potentially' screw over PR harvesters if dev is short-sighted tnough not to implement a fix that will allow a character to choose where their high levels in PR are transferred to.
Once the respec has taken place and players are able to transfer their harvesting ability to a particular nation then PR harvesting no longer gives experience. However all nodes remain the same, including limited quantity and fickle behavior according to weather conditions. Level restrictions on Q mats also remain.
Anyone can harvest the PR for choice + at their highest stanzas as effectively in their main ability.
I know the harvesting respec and removal of the PR tree has been considered before. I think they didn't do it because people were gonna stay and harvest in the PR anyways grinding good mats. This way...you cant.
The Pros:
1. You only have to level one harvesting tree so you don't really need to worry about spending a lot of time grinding.
2. The problem with nodes not loading is problably associated with the fact that people who are down in PR all the time are powerleveling down there. If they were spending more time outside of the PR then these nodes would likely be 'live' more often.
3. Due to the lack of abundance of excellent supreme that will occur from less people leveling and 'stumbling' on to high quality nodes, a more diversified crowd will appear in the pr seeking 'live' nodes. In other words, it 'abolishes' the regulars for the sake of moving a greater population over all down into the PR.
4. Harvesting is balanced with the other classes in the PR. Those of you who have done extrensive hunting in the PR know that you aren't likely to do it for xp because subterranian mobs have increased hits/damage for their level. Harvesting will no longer be an effective leveling tool in the PR, encouraging the 'harvester protection group' format.
5. more people down there really means you're likely to get rezzed a lot more often. This will ease the burden of traveling as well as the poor harvesters who no longer get xp and can not work dp off in the pr.
6. Events will be more likely to take place in the roots, which is supposed to be the 'frontier' so to speak. The fact that the PR can be a rough place discourages new exploration. My playing preference is a pretty high %explore but there's still lots of people people who don't have it. I think the difficulty and lack of a population for the high %socials are discouraging roots play. So now, due to population/traveling restraint, all events are harvested in foreign lands where at least one population has to run far and wide to get the non-spawning people to an event.
Once we start having missions based in the roots we can start getting competitive. For instance the last event spawned a ton of melinoe and CP at Stainmoore gate. They RP problems with each other but ran forth to kill the kitin together. Competition only spawned afterwards arguing who was better and not during.
Funny thing was, Infinity moved over and we had a CP with us...Tetra, scouting the area. When the disorganized rabble ran into all the kitin guardians Tetra pulled the leader and maybe two to three guardians. We were killing the leader for about 4 minutes (thanks Tetra!!!) before the rest of the people showed up to get their hits in.
I didn't point that out to brag, I'm pointing that out because over the long trip people got disorganized. Inifnity ran over to check out Zorai once we heard that Fyros was cleared. Because we were seperate from the main group we did not throw ourselves into their (dis)organization. Maintaining a small force allowed us to be incredibly effective.
If the forces were split, we arrive without long travel periods where leader's nerves begin to fray. the organization among the ranks will inspire competition as well as over all effectiveness that would be great for the storyline.
Although this inspires the storyline and competition, I think we're still cool enough to see past it and rez each other in non pr areas
Cons:
1. A more diversified crowd seeking materials in the PR means that PK may be increased as people fight over nodes. 'Bring it on' I may say, however there are many others who feel this is a problem. However, even many non-pvp acknowledge that many more people would have to be in PR for griefing to ever be a problem. I doubt we have enough people overall for this to be a problem yet either.
2. With encouraged 'groups' of people going down to protect their harvesters for good mats (they should anyway since they are getting the eq out of it!), single griefers or small groups of griefers will be less likely to pose a problem. Even if they exist, there should be plenty of people to rez you.
3. The big kicker and inspiration comes from the removal of a PR xp. It's still a con when it comes down to it...since you'd you know...not get xp.
edit2: One thing I forgot to mention is that people with say...150 pr 150 desert are severly screwed for the time they've put in. The only bright side is that they'll probalbly be able to afford every spec they've had and then some...which they problably already have! Sooooooo I really just don't know what to do here. This is the only thing I really don't like about my suggestion. Maybe the devs can code something that gives these people an 'exp' boost for a set of levels...say 30-50 levels, where they get double xp-over 3k permitted.
We just got a lot of work in while I was typing this so I'm going to avoid the other diversification effects I have for the outside areas. Let me know what you guys think of the PR idea though. Devs' prolly won't do it but it's just fun to kick around. I'll get to the other stuff if I can kill the stuff we have today quickly.
but hey, I'm biased