Do people appear online in the counts, even if they are invisible?
Generally, no. That's part of the point of being invisible.
That and to be able to steal cookies.
Cause I usually am - because I do not really log in to do anything. And many people I know do that same. Sadly, I am not very good at stealing cookies, I will work on that. Something to do
speak to anyone ingame guilds and alliances are drying up of players i know we in the middle os a cycle and more will log in when mod 21 comes out but a lot of people left when all their rl$ and millions of ad spent on making their toons the best they could be was wiped out in an instant by the combat rework (for quite a few this was the second time in a few years) not just was their investments suddenly just gone they had to spend millions more ad or lots more rl $ just to get their toon back to close to what they were before the rework
Do people appear online in the counts, even if they are invisible?
Generally, no. That's part of the point of being invisible.
That and to be able to steal cookies.
Cause I usually am - because I do not really log in to do anything. And many people I know do that same. Sadly, I am not very good at stealing cookies, I will work on that. Something to do
Even if 50% of the player base ran in the shadows, it would be telling us, the ratio of Steam to Arc and no launcher usage is even. We could also banter about all the bots, I am not here to debate the numbers, if you want to do your own census;
Can be done standing in Protector's Enclave or anywhere in the game.
O key to open social menu
Player search Tab
Enter Adventure Zone name into the search (ex: Blacklake District)
If the bottom number is 100 or greater you will need to check it by instance.
Enter the Adventure Zone name followed by #number (ex:Avernus #1)
Increment the search until you find the last 2 or 3 are empty.
Dungeons and skirmishes can be counted as well, since they are limited to 5 to 10 players, you could spend a lot more time counting a +100 dungeon 5 at a time.
It is my opinion the recent population or lack thereof, in Protector's Enclave alone, speaks volumes. Most games this old (8 years now) are no longer in service. Like my wife said, it was not so long ago she was accustom to counting as high as 900 people there. Low population obviously will not kill the game, if Champions is any example. If you want to do a high volume count, wait for what you consider a big event (summer festival, anniversary, release of next module) and do your count at that time. Wendy and I are going to a birthday BBQ. I hope you are all enjoying some outdoor activities as well, and not stuck inside.
> @vastano#2343 said: > speak to anyone ingame guilds and alliances are drying up of players > i know we in the middle os a cycle and more will log in when mod 21 comes out > but a lot of people left when all their rl$ and millions of ad spent on making their toons the best they could be was wiped out in an instant by the combat rework (for quite a few this was the second time in a few years) not just was their investments suddenly just gone they had to spend millions more ad or lots more rl $ just to get their toon back to close to what they were before the rework
It's been my observation that pretty much the opposite has been happening, at least on PC. While players you may personally know leave, and that contributes to the perception that the player base is dwindling, I've seen a huge influx of new players in the game lately. We have one of the older guilds/alliances in the game, and I've had to turn people away or direct them to another guild in our alliance because we are full. Our guild isn't filled with inactive players either because we do regular purges of players who haven't logged in for 30 days.
The combat rework definitely drove a good number of players from the game, but it seems like at least a good chunk of them have been replaced with "new blood."
@rubytrue my own experience is that a couple of my characters are leaders of a guild I don't use anymore, last year that guild had an influx of new players all of whom are still in the guild but they all left and don't play. Well one player left manually a couple of months ago so they may be still playing and moved to an active guild, but the other characters if still there would not be in this guild anymore and would have moved also, but they're just all sitting there still with the players behind them gone. The guild is in an alliance which was once full, now it has besides the helm guild only 4 other inactive guilds sitting re-arranged into one group, mine included, and the alliance and guilds which make it seems to be totally inactive. While there may indeed be a continual stream of new players joining (evidenced by the continual newbie questions in PE zone chat every day) many of them only come to see what the game is like and then quickly move on. I tend to resonate more with what @vastano#2343 said, especially about their investments being wiped out more than once and having enough of it. It's not enough to get new players, you have to keep them longterm and that people are joining but then soon leaving is supported by you saying you need to do regular purges of inactives.
Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
> @vastano#2343 said: > speak to anyone ingame guilds and alliances are drying up of players > i know we in the middle os a cycle and more will log in when mod 21 comes out > but a lot of people left when all their rl$ and millions of ad spent on making their toons the best they could be was wiped out in an instant by the combat rework (for quite a few this was the second time in a few years) not just was their investments suddenly just gone they had to spend millions more ad or lots more rl $ just to get their toon back to close to what they were before the rework
It's been my observation that pretty much the opposite has been happening, at least on PC. While players you may personally know leave, and that contributes to the perception that the player base is dwindling, I've seen a huge influx of new players in the game lately. We have one of the older guilds/alliances in the game, and I've had to turn people away or direct them to another guild in our alliance because we are full. Our guild isn't filled with inactive players either because we do regular purges of players who haven't logged in for 30 days.
The combat rework definitely drove a good number of players from the game, but it seems like at least a good chunk of them have been replaced with "new blood."
and how likely are these new blood to stay for the 3 or four years it takes to get your toon capped out (unless you make a massive rl$ or ad investment) i would make a wild guess out of every 100 people who come to test only 5 will stick around when they realise getting to 80 isnt even a quater of the way to getting your toon playable i been checking out redit and theres loads of threads from people starting "got my char to 80 but cant get past 25k il" the answer is always the same "increase mount and companion bolster get better gear" Then they suddenly realise to get your comp bolster up and mount bolster up costs a shed load of ad and $ so they have hit 'cap' and suddenly realised they are seriosly lacking and cant really advance without speding insane amounts of time or insane amounts of currency and checking through the forums they also realise all there investment is probably going to bbe wiped out the next time a dev decides cryptic needs another cashgrab
It has been an observation, the majority of cash free players hang around until level 35 to 40. The reason behind this is fairly easy to spot. Leveling any character, other than mindless repetitive dungeon grinds, from 40 to 70 is a world of hurt without investing cash.
People who invest cash at the beginning of any online game are most likely to stay to the end content. People spending more cash as they play, are loyalists, and often labeled whales by the community, will stick around no matter how bad things get. This is the axiom of all MMOs.
Worth it, is too much of a generalization. @avoie68#6606 according to their profile has made this 1 post, plus 5 comments complaining about the game in September 2019. If you haven't played since 2019, things are not that much different. Two years seems like a long time to be calling yourself a new player.
@hotfrostworm why do you have to use words like axiom that I need to look up on Dictionary.com?
I pay cash over on Champions, I have purchased lairs, costumes, powers, and even character slots over there. Out of all that stuff I just mentioned, you cannot buy lairs or powers here, costumes is very limited, and slots are about the only thing that is the same here. I have played for free here since Rise of Tiamat mod, but only roleplaying and whatnot, not seeking end game or best in slot. For this being a roleplaying game, it sure never felt that way. Champions has its share of toxic players but we still have fun RP there.
I am telling anyone who comes here to ask "Is it worth it?", that all depends on what you came to do. PvP doesn't seem playable at all, unless you and a buddy want to PvP in private. Events arrive broken or you cannot play them without the "standard" item level. Armor is visual and will mess your appearance up big time, only in the last two years, they make the appearance tab on your character sheet. Roleplaying is done only in guilds now, we use to have the Foundry to use for housing but that was removed. Personally that felt like they told us to get lost. I still hang around to see what bombshell they will drop next, it is almost like listening to Howard Stern. You think there is no way they could get the players more upset but they do. There was a lot more I could say positive about this game years ago, when I was having fun with all my friends. I just assist with the Halloween party once a year now. I guess that is still fun, but I am not talking about the Liar's Masquerade. I help Wendy with her Barovian Bash for one day in October. Out of a much larger crew, only the two of us remain behind.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend you to play this game right now, simply due to a lack of progress. Without VIP status, you will have close to zero chances to upgrade companions and mounts in a timely fashion. Trade bars (a currency which allows you to buy the necessary upgrade tokens) can only be acquired by opening lockboxes with keys. If the RNG is merciful, you might get 2 trade bars (1 upgrade token costs 3 trade bars and you need hundreds of them) after completing a random queue. As a VIP, you get one lockbox key per day per account. Of course, you can buy these keys in the Zen shop. You could farm Astral Diamonds and swap them for Zen, but this requires several months of waiting. This duration used to be much shorter in the past when there were more active players around. Did I already mention that you can only refine 100.000 ADs per day and one Zen costs 750 AD? And buying 1000 Zen costs 11$! I can understand that Cryptic wants to earn money, but other MMOs seem to be better at generating cash with several minimal payments. Some even sell cosmetics and emotes or stiff like this.
The new combat rework and the mindless grinding in New Sharandar has frustrated a lot of players, especially tanks. We now have to rebuild our characters around defense, awareness and HP which costs a fortune most of us don't have and can't acquire. Where to get all the necessary ADs, upgrade tokens and gear from? And the drop rate and RNG are nasty. Some people get multiple mythical animals out of their lockboxes, other people not even one despite opening dozens of them.
As a DPS, you have to wait quite some time until you can enter a random queue due to a lack of tanks and sometimes healers.
Back in the past, before Mod 16, the game had much more to offer. It was not perfect either and had it flaws (life steal!), but there were different builds for every class (Tankadin, Healadin, Baneadin, Burnadin and perhaps even more). That's not possible with the new system. For my classes, Paladin and Wizard, there is only one way to properly play them.
Very well put, if you want to start this game get ready to shell out a couple hundred for VIP and keys, if thats your thing then by all means this game is for you, however, having 68 pages of purchase history, I have found the game likes to screw with you by doing constant changes to skills and classes because of pvp crybabies who won't take the time to learn their classes, and this basically screws us pve players, so, the fact that after all I have wasted on this game, and the fact that they can't even get something as simple as random disconnects under control, because they say they need your info (which is total HAMSTER) because for some reason they spend they money they get like either, a child in a candy store, or, a HAMSTER in a HAMSTER store, (not sure which yet) As for the fact that they made the classes specific to their job, there are 3 classes in this game currently, tank, healer, and dps ..... that being said I should not have to explain why a tank can't be more than a tank..... if you wana be a dps be a dps, don't be the HAMSTER who plays an tank and gets pissed and rages because he can't one shot mobs. I actually like the new changes it forces people to quit being morons and actually play their class.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend you to play this game right now, simply due to a lack of progress. Without VIP status, you will have close to zero chances to upgrade companions and mounts in a timely fashion. Trade bars (a currency which allows you to buy the necessary upgrade tokens) can only be acquired by opening lockboxes with keys. If the RNG is merciful, you might get 2 trade bars (1 upgrade token costs 3 trade bars and you need hundreds of them) after completing a random queue. As a VIP, you get one lockbox key per day per account. Of course, you can buy these keys in the Zen shop. You could farm Astral Diamonds and swap them for Zen, but this requires several months of waiting. This duration used to be much shorter in the past when there were more active players around. Did I already mention that you can only refine 100.000 ADs per day and one Zen costs 750 AD? And buying 1000 Zen costs 11$! I can understand that Cryptic wants to earn money, but other MMOs seem to be better at generating cash with several minimal payments. Some even sell cosmetics and emotes or stiff like this.
The new combat rework and the mindless grinding in New Sharandar has frustrated a lot of players, especially tanks. We now have to rebuild our characters around defense, awareness and HP which costs a fortune most of us don't have and can't acquire. Where to get all the necessary ADs, upgrade tokens and gear from? And the drop rate and RNG are nasty. Some people get multiple mythical animals out of their lockboxes, other people not even one despite opening dozens of them.
As a DPS, you have to wait quite some time until you can enter a random queue due to a lack of tanks and sometimes healers.
Back in the past, before Mod 16, the game had much more to offer. It was not perfect either and had it flaws (life steal!), but there were different builds for every class (Tankadin, Healadin, Baneadin, Burnadin and perhaps even more). That's not possible with the new system. For my classes, Paladin and Wizard, there is only one way to properly play them.
Very well put, if you want to start this game get ready to shell out a couple hundred for VIP and keys, if thats your thing then by all means this game is for you, however, having 68 pages of purchase history, I have found the game likes to screw with you by doing constant changes to skills and classes because of pvp crybabies who won't take the time to learn their classes, and this basically screws us pve players, so, the fact that after all I have wasted on this game, and the fact that they can't even get something as simple as random disconnects under control, because they say they need your info (which is total HAMSTER) because for some reason they spend they money they get like either, a child in a candy store, or, a HAMSTER in a HAMSTER store, (not sure which yet) As for the fact that they made the classes specific to their job, there are 3 classes in this game currently, tank, healer, and dps ..... that being said I should not have to explain why a tank can't be more than a tank..... if you wana be a dps be a dps, don't be the HAMSTER who plays an tank and gets pissed and rages because he can't one shot mobs. I actually like the new changes it forces people to quit being morons and actually play their class.
That statement about tanks ignores one fact: Two of the tank classes have a DPS paragon for soloing but the Paladin doesn't. All other healing classes have a DPS paragon for soloing but the Paladin doesn't.
There is a class feature that allows Paladins to do 10% 5% more DPS when not in a party - Paladins have asked for this to be increased to 20% so they can solo without being forced to invest in two completely separate sets of gear and companions.
That's not a big ask.
Have you noticed that queues are mostly waiting for tanks these days? That's due to the number of players that have stopped playing the paladin - but yeah sure, you keep on attacking what's left of them with ill informed bile.
Post edited by armadeonx on
Please Do Not Feed The Trolls
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
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lantern22Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,111Arc User
Not really worth it for me. Ive got around 150mil AD and couldn't be bothered upgrading my chars. Probably because of scaling. To me its like all the fun is being stripped out of the game
The Paladin's "Blessed Wanderer" mechanic only adds 5% to damage when not in a party. Am I missing out on something?
Sorry, my mistake - you're right, it's 5%. I've updated my post
Please Do Not Feed The Trolls
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
0
someonediesMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,257Arc User
tbh i dont wanna waste time with a game which as 50 players or less (just to know which are good im a dpsmeta player, i just want the best dps right now)
Comments
Sadly, I am not very good at stealing cookies, I will work on that. Something to do
i know we in the middle os a cycle and more will log in when mod 21 comes out
but a lot of people left when all their rl$ and millions of ad spent on making their toons the best they could be was wiped out in an instant by the combat rework (for quite a few this was the second time in a few years) not just was their investments suddenly just gone they had to spend millions more ad or lots more rl $ just to get their toon back to close to what they were before the rework
- Can be done standing in Protector's Enclave or anywhere in the game.
- O key to open social menu
- Player search Tab
- Enter Adventure Zone name into the search (ex: Blacklake District)
If the bottom number is 100 or greater you will need to check it by instance.- Enter the Adventure Zone name followed by #number (ex:Avernus #1)
- Increment the search until you find the last 2 or 3 are empty.
Dungeons and skirmishes can be counted as well, since they are limited to 5 to 10 players, you could spend a lot more time counting a +100 dungeon 5 at a time.It is my opinion the recent population or lack thereof, in Protector's Enclave alone, speaks volumes. Most games this old (8 years now) are no longer in service. Like my wife said, it was not so long ago she was accustom to counting as high as 900 people there. Low population obviously will not kill the game, if Champions is any example. If you want to do a high volume count, wait for what you consider a big event (summer festival, anniversary, release of next module) and do your count at that time. Wendy and I are going to a birthday BBQ. I hope you are all enjoying some outdoor activities as well, and not stuck inside.
PSN Zen AD Exchange - Forecasting Spreadsheet
> speak to anyone ingame guilds and alliances are drying up of players
> i know we in the middle os a cycle and more will log in when mod 21 comes out
> but a lot of people left when all their rl$ and millions of ad spent on making their toons the best they could be was wiped out in an instant by the combat rework (for quite a few this was the second time in a few years) not just was their investments suddenly just gone they had to spend millions more ad or lots more rl $ just to get their toon back to close to what they were before the rework
It's been my observation that pretty much the opposite has been happening, at least on PC. While players you may personally know leave, and that contributes to the perception that the player base is dwindling, I've seen a huge influx of new players in the game lately. We have one of the older guilds/alliances in the game, and I've had to turn people away or direct them to another guild in our alliance because we are full. Our guild isn't filled with inactive players either because we do regular purges of players who haven't logged in for 30 days.
The combat rework definitely drove a good number of players from the game, but it seems like at least a good chunk of them have been replaced with "new blood."
i been checking out redit and theres loads of threads from people starting "got my char to 80 but cant get past 25k il"
the answer is always the same "increase mount and companion bolster get better gear"
Then they suddenly realise to get your comp bolster up and mount bolster up costs a shed load of ad and $
so they have hit 'cap' and suddenly realised they are seriosly lacking and cant really advance without speding insane amounts of time or insane amounts of currency and checking through the forums they also realise all there investment is probably going to bbe wiped out the next time a dev decides cryptic needs another cashgrab
People who invest cash at the beginning of any online game are most likely to stay to the end content. People spending more cash as they play, are loyalists, and often labeled whales by the community, will stick around no matter how bad things get. This is the axiom of all MMOs.
Worth it, is too much of a generalization. @avoie68#6606 according to their profile has made this 1 post, plus 5 comments complaining about the game in September 2019. If you haven't played since 2019, things are not that much different. Two years seems like a long time to be calling yourself a new player.
PSN Zen AD Exchange - Forecasting Spreadsheet
I pay cash over on Champions, I have purchased lairs, costumes, powers, and even character slots over there. Out of all that stuff I just mentioned, you cannot buy lairs or powers here, costumes is very limited, and slots are about the only thing that is the same here. I have played for free here since Rise of Tiamat mod, but only roleplaying and whatnot, not seeking end game or best in slot. For this being a roleplaying game, it sure never felt that way. Champions has its share of toxic players but we still have fun RP there.
I am telling anyone who comes here to ask "Is it worth it?", that all depends on what you came to do. PvP doesn't seem playable at all, unless you and a buddy want to PvP in private. Events arrive broken or you cannot play them without the "standard" item level. Armor is visual and will mess your appearance up big time, only in the last two years, they make the appearance tab on your character sheet. Roleplaying is done only in guilds now, we use to have the Foundry to use for housing but that was removed. Personally that felt like they told us to get lost. I still hang around to see what bombshell they will drop next, it is almost like listening to Howard Stern. You think there is no way they could get the players more upset but they do. There was a lot more I could say positive about this game years ago, when I was having fun with all my friends. I just assist with the Halloween party once a year now. I guess that is still fun, but I am not talking about the Liar's Masquerade. I help Wendy with her Barovian Bash for one day in October. Out of a much larger crew, only the two of us remain behind.
Just killing time...
Trade bars (a currency which allows you to buy the necessary upgrade tokens) can only be acquired by opening lockboxes with keys. If the RNG is merciful, you might get 2 trade bars (1 upgrade token costs 3 trade bars and you need hundreds of them) after completing a random queue. As a VIP, you get one lockbox key per day per account. Of course, you can buy these keys in the Zen shop. You could farm Astral Diamonds and swap them for Zen, but this requires several months of waiting. This duration used to be much shorter in the past when there were more active players around. Did I already mention that you can only refine 100.000 ADs per day and one Zen costs 750 AD? And buying 1000 Zen costs 11$!
I can understand that Cryptic wants to earn money, but other MMOs seem to be better at generating cash with several minimal payments. Some even sell cosmetics and emotes or stiff like this.
The new combat rework and the mindless grinding in New Sharandar has frustrated a lot of players, especially tanks. We now have to rebuild our characters around defense, awareness and HP which costs a fortune most of us don't have and can't acquire. Where to get all the necessary ADs, upgrade tokens and gear from? And the drop rate and RNG are nasty. Some people get multiple mythical animals out of their lockboxes, other people not even one despite opening dozens of them.
As a DPS, you have to wait quite some time until you can enter a random queue due to a lack of tanks and sometimes healers.
Back in the past, before Mod 16, the game had much more to offer. It was not perfect either and had it flaws (life steal!), but there were different builds for every class (Tankadin, Healadin, Baneadin, Burnadin and perhaps even more). That's not possible with the new system. For my classes, Paladin and Wizard, there is only one way to properly play them.
Very well put, if you want to start this game get ready to shell out a couple hundred for VIP and keys, if thats your thing then by all means this game is for you, however, having 68 pages of purchase history, I have found the game likes to screw with you by doing constant changes to skills and classes because of pvp crybabies who won't take the time to learn their classes, and this basically screws us pve players, so, the fact that after all I have wasted on this game, and the fact that they can't even get something as simple as random disconnects under control, because they say they need your info (which is total HAMSTER) because for some reason they spend they money they get like either, a child in a candy store, or, a HAMSTER in a HAMSTER store, (not sure which yet) As for the fact that they made the classes specific to their job, there are 3 classes in this game currently, tank, healer, and dps ..... that being said I should not have to explain why a tank can't be more than a tank..... if you wana be a dps be a dps, don't be the HAMSTER who plays an tank and gets pissed and rages because he can't one shot mobs. I actually like the new changes it forces people to quit being morons and actually play their class.
All other healing classes have a DPS paragon for soloing but the Paladin doesn't.
There is a class feature that allows Paladins to do
10%5% more DPS when not in a party - Paladins have asked for this to be increased to 20% so they can solo without being forced to invest in two completely separate sets of gear and companions.That's not a big ask.
Have you noticed that queues are mostly waiting for tanks these days? That's due to the number of players that have stopped playing the paladin - but yeah sure, you keep on attacking what's left of them with ill informed bile.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
Dead🔪