I am in a really good high-ranked guild (good morale, all structures at max, except the PvP ones - we are mostly PvE-focused). However, we are observing a drop in activity, and I am kind-of wondering if other guilds are seeing the same.
There was an increase in the number of players leaving the game. We have generally been full, with 149/150 players, and even a waiting list, but now we are at a low point of just around 140 players (we have a policy of removing people if they do not log in for an extended period without letting the guild know in advance).
We are also seeing a reduction in the number of guild runs. Of course, the Random Queue fiasco is partly to blame for that - we used to do regular alliance runs of various dungeons, just with random groups - typically the first people that expressed interest, but RQs introduced the hassle of Tank/Healer/3DPS groups, and forced people either to run some random content or accept reduced rewards, which seems to have killed the motivation of many players.
Are other guilds seeing a similar reduction in activity?
This comes on top of the major failure of the last new guild activity that was introduced - the Stronghold Marauders. People had hoped for something like the Dragonflight runs - something worth doing several times per day with your friends, but instead we just got a "once-per-week" activity.
And yes, Stronghold PvP is pretty much dead too.
Now, we expect to get a Stronghold level expansion (20->25) in the not too-distant future, but personally I would prefer to see something done to improve guild activities first.
Hoping for improvements...
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We arranged runs in the same way you describe above; all welcome without class restriction but that's gone out the window now.
What makes this more difficult to manage of course is that anyone volunteering for runs needs to have all dungeons unlocked and be capable of handling MSP & FBI and the time required for these runs makes running R.E.Q. very unattractive.
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Would help if dragonflight wasn't pointless, marauders broken (no point doing more than one round and no 2xinf), and the new refinement system meaning the only gems ever donated are the crates people craft and the very occasional voucher along with the temp building so advancement is terribly slow. We're trying to get our offshoot guild up a few levels (we're doing GH 10->11->12 atm), and the other guild I'm involved with which is R8 is struggling even more.
Yes, game enjoyment took a turn down with RQs.
EDIT: Oh and the 1 hour a week campaign of chult did not help esp after it followd a mod with 1 mission a day. Sadly mod 13 will offer nothing for mid level players and give no incentive to play FBI/MSP/MSVA to these players the content developers expect mid level players to play. With some big MMO RPG's coming out this year neverwinter need to take care of all their players not just end gamers if they don't end gamers will not have a game to play. The player BLEED is reall and happening daily, and it is as bad as EE bleed if not worst cause this time no endgamers are nagging about it on the forums
RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ????
FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base
Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
The supposed help that was prommised to smaller guilds over a year ago never happened and the temp buildings is useless for any guild below level 10. Again stating that cryptic is trying to take care of the endgamers (they should get most attention) and not giving any attention to the rest (the biggest problem in the game right now). I am in a small guild but i am in an amazing alliance that "carries" us a lot. The problem is not manyalliances does that to small guilds or offer "Training runs" to TONG where 2/3 end gamers carry the rest through a slow tong. This is where players loose motivation try failing 7-10 times in a row in TONG and say the game is fun when you have NOTHING else for you in the past year + .
RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ????
FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base
Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
I am a classic demographic customer, I am happy to spend a bit of money sometimes, no I wont grind 8 hours a day, yes I enjoy some of the content, but there ISNT enough to hold me here at 13.2k iL. At my iL everything is either way way too easy or near impossible to PUG.
[And yes I have a guild but not that many players active in MY time zone and yes general player activity seems to have dropped since RQ and general lack of content once you hit the brick wall and lack of interesting content between 13k and 15k]
I also agree with the sentiment expressed here that there is nothing for people in the 13-15K IL range particularly if you're DPS. I've decided having spent quite a lot of real money on this game that it's going in the wrong direction catering only for the elitists and will now play free till I find something better. I'm only in the 13-15K trap because they keep nerfing whole playstyles out of existence, so I didn't want to concentrate on just one main (I have 9 13-15.2K characters) and have it destroyed.
EDIT : as was said before their introduction the pricing of these temp buildings should scale with the level of the guild. It really makes no sense charging the same price for a temp building for a rank 20 guild that you would for a rank 1 guild
RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ????
FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base
Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
But then again its still running the same content over and over and over and over again again
By the way, the content is kind of different in some small area. Once a while, I have the "Ha! They changed that" moment.
I have a few level 70 (leveled up from invocation and leadership) that I hoped one day I might use them.
I agree on the lack of new content for mid-game, I was actually talking about this in Teamspeak recently with some friends. All new content for at least the past year has been geared towards endgame. Lots of things that have been mentioned many times that could help - bringing back the old epic dungeons is probably the most mentioned by players that remember them fondly.
The developers probably think that the hunt system is good new content for the mid-game players, but the drop rates are so bad that it really takes the fun out of it for me. Not to mention the single item restriction on lure components, but that is a different topic that has been covered in other threads.
100% to @mynaam ! Well said bro!
As GL sometimes i am happy, that our latest influx of players is mostly rookies. Sure we can't do ToNG on the roll, but i keep my fingers crossed, by the time most of them reach that magical border, there would be more to do at mid-level.
Returning players, who have left before Mod 6, mostly miss the original Gauntlgrym. Damn it was so good, we had PVE paired with PVP in a very unique way, shame what has happened to it. Cryptic, bring it back!
As end game player these days you are pretty much hit in the face too, no matter if you are in a small or a full rank 20 guild. Maxed out guilds die from boredom and we bellow rank 20, we are aimlessly chasing rank 20. For what am i asking? I can pretty much do all content with my current mediocre boons and you simply can not substitute real PVE content with an endless amount of INF farm all day. There is so much you can do before you would say meh and throw your weapons in the corner.
I pretty much understand we are between Mods, mind you Mod 13 should have arrived much sooner, this break was to big and the "b" Mod had basically no content either besides a small skirmish that didn't fill any holes.
Pretty sad to see, that Mod 13 won't have a bunch of returning or at least 1 new dungeon either.
ToNG is a big failure in my book. If you are not high IL and FotM class you have pretty much nothing to do there.
Running the PUG Q endlessly killed the purpose of guilds/alliances. I think Cryptic has shot here in their own feet. With PUG Qs most players run a bunch of under geared alts through the skirmishes/leveling dungeons, sometimes pissing off those who have to wait out the "playing" done with Qs.
People interested in PGC still miss a fully functional/rewarding Foundry.
PVP is dead by all means for 99% of the player base. Solo Q was a good step towards the right direction, but up until there is still Q sync, no bracketing, ect. you won't really see a mass influx of players.
Mod 6 butchered and deleted most cool dungeons. No comment there...
Guild specific content dead too, while DF was good earlier, the gear you can get out of it, outdated, the vouchers, not noteworthy, Guild PVP dead too, tbh never really excelled and Marauders would need a big overhaul.
So this leaves us with an endless refining simulator, chasing for newer weapons again in Mod 13. My question would be, for what purpose, where to use them? There is no new PVE content, no new dungeon added and i can tell you, it will definitely not help those poor mid level souls either, who can't get into ToNG and have no other dungeons to run besides the ones they already know inside out.
At the end of my 2 cents i would underline again what @mynaam said. We need more to do for mid- level players too, this is the biggest public of the game and they sit and can run maybe a handful of dungeons over and over and over...up until they get bored and run away.
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-there is the usual loss of players before new module pops up
-end-game toons begging for going to Tong if they are not the flavor of the month DPS. They rage-quit over time.
-mid-level toons stuck in CN or in hunts with no other enjoyable possibilities
- SH events not rewarding enough (outdated rewards)
- eternal grind is not the taste of everyone
--> New rewards in MSVA, FBI and MSP would be more than welcome; especially for MSVA
--> Rewards for DF and SH heroic encounters to be updated (even if it consists of rare drops)
-->Old dungeons to be reintroduced
Small adjustments could help a lot to maintain the players pool.
IDK, will keep at it till spring when I actually go outside and do things but I am not sure if I will be back after that. There are a LOT of good games out there with far less grind.
The midlevel players are tired of not having anything new they can do since the last mods focused on endgame content. The BiS guys got sick of all the constant nerfs, changes, glitches, bad loot, and overuse of RNG in the game.
This is what happens when a game tries to be everything to everybody. You water down the entire product to the point that no one has interest in it. It's either too hard for casual players or too easy for hardcore players. They balance powers for PVP and ruin them for PVE.
I get that you want to please a large amount of your base. If you don't have a large enough team to satisfy BiS and casual users in each mod than you have to choose your largest money making demographic and focus on them.
I'm not going to say the sky is falling because it's been said before. I will say the general outlook on the game within my community is one of negativity and a lot of people have moved on.
Chalk it up to the RQ fiasco. Also the LOW LOW drop rate on ultimates. For random reinforcement to work you do need to get rewards. Considering how many you need for upgrades it has caused a lot of people to just thrown in the towel.
I’ve hit 14.7k on my gwf and have reached a point where I contemplate leaving the game. The problem is I really enjoy the game play. I have all but the last SKT boon. I have completed T9G a few times and failed quite a few more. The content I can easily get into is boring or not worth the effort at this point. The only content I even want to run is T9G, but people only want fast runs, which I totally get. I know firsthand how frustrating it is to run content for four hours and have it fail, meanwhile you get 20 seals and gear drops if you’re lucky. It’s disheartening when your group finally synthesizes, you beat Orcus, and get nothing, zero drops, or just as insulting, you get something worthless. I don’t need 100 RP, I need gear to progress. And a sense of progress is what I feel I’m missing.
NW seems to have one path for character viability be it in PVE or PVP. Once players reach that, they have no reason to continue playing.
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Currently there are 9 players on in guild.
We are a GH20 with all the goodies for PvE as well.
It's very hard to recruit good end game players as well because they are all in the same boat we are, in a guild that they worked their asses off building to GH20. Even to go to another GH20 guild is tough because it's not your blood sweat and tears put into it.
That said, we have room in guild and in alliance for anyone wishing to try something new... I'd love some new folks to rock content with!! 18+. team speak, and 8.5k IL (Without SH boons) min requirement.
We have a very active alliance, but I am still seeing a drop in activity.