Everytime an area is tweaked or modified on carrionfields it is ALWAYS to tone the area down.

No. Some changes make areas easier (*). Some changes make areas harder. People just bitch a lot about one, and forget about the other.

(*): Examples: Huge Academy expansion, vast reduction in the frequency of aggressive NPCs accessing common areas, more newbie-friendly areas added near hometowns that don't have them, more quests available in the 1-20 ranks, price reductions on commonly purchased items with poor alternatives, more abilities for lowbie shifters and transmuters, experience and movement bonuses for exploration, capped XP-holes for dying, enhanced Outfit utility, etc.

Also, was any leveling area put in to compensate for the loss of the white tower?

The number of newly added areas always vastly exceeds the number of areas removed. The more common complaint we get is that we add too many new areas, and as Thera gets bigger it gets harder to locate enemies. (We've been merging smaller areas into larger ones to mitigate this issue without impacting our desire to add new content. 2003 saw a net reduction in total areas, though rooms expanded considerably.)

As an Area Guy, I made it a point with a semi-recent mortal to rank in newly added places, including the level range you're talking about. There was no problem- in many ways it was easier because "sheep" players who follow herds never found me.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com