What about some QoL improvements?

damoc · March 2017

Neverwinter could use some streamlining and overall more user-friendly features. Be forewarned this subject is vast and ecclectic so brace yourself to resist some apparently unrelated subject changes.

Items and inventory:
A big point of frustration for me. Here are some of the mindboggling issues:

Stacks of 20 - 99 - 999. Items in your bags can stack mainly up to these maxima. Could we please have them all stack to 999?

Buying consumables or components by an amount inferior to the maximum stackable value. Does no one get frustrated to have to buy Injury kit by 20 when they stack to 99 or coal by 100 when it stacks to 999? Could we please be allowed to buy in bulk the size of the max stack?

Getting rid of 'bound to character' on non equipment items. I get why these items are bound, it's to fight bots but one standardized bound on account suffice.

Campaign items for the river district should go to the currency tab. Seriously? The reclaimed weapons, magics and riches just fill constantly at least 3 spots in your bags. When you factor the dig site maps and pass it's a miracle if you have space enough to pick the random loot.

Can we have the ability to upgrade our bags? Even at the cost of some grind but even the ability to add up to 6 spots on a bag would work wonders. I you fear for the bag sales, making so that Zen bags would be easier to upgrade would balance it in my opinon.

Feat and power tooltips, general clarity

It's no secret that there are major discrepancies between what stated on tooltips and what the effect does. This is either due to bugs (but with luck these are slowly weeded out) or just imprecise or misused vocabulary.

For powers, I would like to have systematicaly the base improvement given by the level 1 power. It's frustratig to have +10% buff or +5s duration on rank up if I don't have the basis.

For both feats and powers, it would be nice to have a coherent unified vocabulary in order to clarify them. This vocabulary should be consistant an precise. It should address subjects like

distinction between additive and multiplicative modifiers (simple distinction between 'increased' and 'more' for example)
distinction between ratings or effective stat
distinction between outgoing damage/healing, incoming damage/healing, fixed/variable values ....

With these changes it would be glaringly obvious when some feats or powers need to be checked for bugs or it would be easier to adjust them since we would know the status quo. For now it's often wild guesses.

I'm sure there are many more Quality of Life improvements we could discuss like the ability to trade AD in the Trade window but these are mine for now

samaka · March 2017

Fix the chat window so it stops randomly deleting my chat history! Better yet, make it so the fade out text chat option doesn't actually DELETE your text but just HIDES it and you can click a button to reveal the hidden text again if you want.

I have run with the chat fade out option disabled since I started playing this game, however, somewhere around Mod 10 or 10.5 my chat will randomly decide it just needs to start deleting my text... is has become a serious aggravation and annoys me to no end!

greywynd · March 2017

Prayer bag stones that are bound to character. Why should Zeke, praying to Tempus be able to pass those stones over to Bob, who worships Tymora?

beckylunatic · March 2017

greywynd said:
Prayer bag stones that are bound to character. Why should Zeke, praying to Tempus be able to pass those stones over to Bob, who worships Tymora?

Because convoluted in-world explanations that amount to "wesayso" aren't good game design.

greywynd · March 2017

beckylunatic said:

Because convoluted in-world explanations that amount to "wesayso" aren't good game design.

First and foremost it is an RPG. Somethings should be personal to a character and not be able to be spread around.

beckylunatic · March 2017

The invocation system is a very poor example of putting a film of roleplaying over a reward mechanic.

"Oh gee, look at the time. It's an entire hour since I last let Kelemvor know he's da man... umm... god... errrr... you know. I need to get my bound bag of random refinement junk and the bonus currency amount to be applied against my next automated dungeon payout."

Worse if you're sequentially invoking multiple alts.

micky1p00 · March 2017

greywynd said:

beckylunatic said:

Because convoluted in-world explanations that amount to "wesayso" aren't good game design.
First and foremost it is an RPG. Somethings should be personal to a character and not be able to be spread around.

If we go the RPG way, there is not a stone that if I'm able to carry or lift, that I can't throw at Bob.
And if you want to go into D&D, and I'm sure there are better experts than me, but attuned items can be "unattuned" at-will, with a limit of 3 items at any given time... and so on..
Not exactly a limit to throwing my stones at Bob.

Personal is the persons decision. Not a mandate.

damoc · March 2017

I came at this subject on a purely pratical way. Why are stones bound? to prevent bots from flooding the market with easy to automatize gain. Why should there be personal bound and account bound? my guess is poor planning at the start of the game and never questionning the status quo one hand and technical limitation on the other hand.

In both cases we end-user have to bear this and it's a nuisance.

Other QoL for example: It seems stupid but leaving a party doesn't make you leave the queue group and vice versa. Could we please ease our life and have a 'leave all groups at once' button?

Can we have a choice when we PUG to choose our role? Like I don't know, I have a non tanky GF and I would like to be considered a Damage Dealer not automatically pegged as the tank... but hey I'm just asking for some common sense not like it's the rarest thing on earth... or is it? Since it's the most unevenly distributed quality of all....

greywynd · March 2017

micky1p00 said:

Personal is the persons decision. Not a mandate.

Actually, in this case, it is the god's will.

nevfe · March 2017

My personal bugbear, drag and dropping items into the 'refine' window.

1) If you move a stack of something, you get asked how many you want to use for refinement. The default should be all of them and you should only be asked 'how many' if you do a shift-dragdrop.

2) If you don't drop *exactly* into a free box in the window the delete confirmation pops up instead. It's far too easy when doing a lot of refinement to delete something by accident. Why can't the whole window receive drops and just allocate them to the next free space?

An option to disable all loot windows while in combat would be nice too.

Oh and improve the professions UI...

Oh and how about fluid scrolling...

A decent wardrobe system? (see the game Rift for how to do this well).

I could go on and on, but I'd better stop now,

samaka · March 2017

I agree 100% on the dragging-and-dropping issue... miss your target by a pixel and the game wants you to delete things... and this applies to not only just refining but everywhere. Never have I played a game that is so intent on letting you delete your items.

Especially since, as you pointed out, the "delete items" box is so similar to the "use how many" box. Would it kill them to make the "delete item" box stand out in some way? I mean, just make the text red or something noticeably different from the "use how many" box!

Unknown · March 2017

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damoc · March 2017

let's not forget a big rework on both the swordcoast chronicle and spell wondows. A hint: scrolling does not make for easy access. Since it's both the windows we're apt to use frequently, giving them some much needed ergonomic revanp would be greatly apréciated.
second hint: the old campaign window, while not perfect war leagues better than the nonsense that plagues us now.
For the powers why not make 4 collumns, whith the first listing the at-wills, the second the encounters, the third the dailies and the fourth the passives, each power neatly under the other and with a bit of luck you could maybe all fit them one one screen whithout the need for scrolling....

nitocris83 · March 2017

I'm a huge proponent of QoL updates so I appreciate suggestions, even knowing some have been around for a while. Sadly, there are some aspects of the game that are put in place to slow down negative behavior (yes, botting). Unfortunately I know these can be frustrating aspects of the game and since they don't totally eliminate the negative behavior, they do often feel more like a hindrance. But then I remember other games I've played that have zero safeguards in place and go into a state of shock at the botting horrors I've witnessed :P

mysteriasdrassa · March 2017

How bout adding more ways to earn Dungeoneers shards.. these are still the hardest to earn for us smaller guilds. Qing for pug runs on Epic Dungeons where you earn them can take FOREVER. And then your not garrenteed to finish due to bad group or whatever. Here's a cppl of sugestions.
1) Add more epics and skirmishes to the Clerics list. Adding Shores of Tuern, Kessels Retreat and the new Illusionists one would help.. these are all fairly in line with difficulty level as the rest. You could even add Master of the Hunt and Dread Legion, but make them worth only 5 shards since they are easier.
2)Change the reward for completing the final campaign task of Elemental Evil. Curently this is only worth 2 shards... seriously? You have to run 12 heroics in 4 different areas and you only get 2?! Change it to 10 to be more in line with the final task of Maze Engine campaign.
3)Add them as a crate reward to the Leadership proffesion, most likely in the rare tasks so they can't be overly done. The rare tasks are pretty much useless right now anyway and no real point in running them.

greywynd · March 2017

How about the ability to name our mounts? We spend almost as much time with them as we do with our companions, who can be named.

damoc · March 2017

greywynd said:
How about the ability to name our mounts? We spend almost as much time with them as we do with our companions, who can be named.

well this I would qualify it a a bonus Role play. It has very few to do with actual things that quimp you. Do you like exchanging your golden crescent one at a time in Sharandar? Are you not fed up with the swordcooast chronicle window never opening where you want it, never displaying clearly what's ready? Do you like a 3 lightyear long power window that needs forever to access your powers if you want to switch then and this without taking the changing power cooldown. Does it not irks you to have non equip items bound to char when bound to account is enough to prevent boting. Is it too much to ask to have clear, explicit tooltips when it would only take the time to define a glossary and then check the feats, wich could be done a little each week? Is it too much to ask to have the base gain of lvl 1 powers? Speaking of powers you know you can rightclick on them in the power window to send them to the power tray. Wouldn't it be more logical to right-click on the power tray to have a list of available powers? but NOOOO. It's always the longest, most dumb rout you must take.
You spend more time battling against the UI than actually enjoing the game. And some of theese improvmeent shouldn't that hard to implement. We're on the dawn of 2020's not stuck in the 80's

demonmonger · March 2017

Easiest way to stop a bot is to make them drop inventory content on death

beckylunatic · March 2017

If your mount is named in your imagination, it's been named. Done. That's how roleplaying works.

greywynd · March 2017

beckylunatic said:
If your mount is named in your imagination, it's been named. Done. That's how roleplaying works.

By that logic there is no point to naming the companions either.

beckylunatic · March 2017

Naming the companions is a byproduct of binding them, for the most part. The interface just happens to involve giving them a name if you want. You don't even have to put one in. It'll just say "Dog" (etc.) if you don't.

tripsofthrymr · March 2017

damoc#3687 said:

Getting rid of 'bound to character' on non equipment items. I get why these items are bound, it's to fight bots but one standardized bound on account suffice.

Mimicking hinted during yesterday's dev stream that some means might be in the works to unbind things bound at character level (changing binding to account).

beckylunatic · March 2017

tripsofthrymr said:

damoc#3687 said:

Getting rid of 'bound to character' on non equipment items. I get why these items are bound, it's to fight bots but one standardized bound on account suffice.
Mimicking hinted during yesterday's dev stream that some means might be in the works to unbind things bound at character level (changing binding to account).

Eesh, considering they were talking about making unbinding a Zen purchase, I don't think this is compatible with the request here. It's a swell idea for handing off outgrown equipment or companions, but not for tidying up your different bind status of refining tat.

Unknown · March 2017

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iandarksword · March 2017

I just want the campaign button (Dread Ring, Sharandar, etc.) in which I have made a key to flash when the key is available. Seems simple enough...

samaka · March 2017

iandarksword said:
I just want the campaign button (Dread Ring, Sharandar, etc.) in which I have made a key to flash when the key is available. Seems simple enough...

Little green gems appear on each corner of the specific campaign for which a task has been completed... flashing may be better, but at least there is some sort of indicator already!

beckylunatic · March 2017

samaka#2511 said:

iandarksword said:
I just want the campaign button (Dread Ring, Sharandar, etc.) in which I have made a key to flash when the key is available. Seems simple enough...
Little green gems appear on each corner of the specific campaign for which a task has been completed... flashing may be better, but at least there is some sort of indicator already!

Ermagerd... now to look for it.

Jules (UI artist @midnightlight#2361 ) has already confirmed that she's super excited about making a campaign UI that she thinks will be a lot more functionally friendly, so I am excited to see what she's been working on.

beckylunatic · March 2017

....

@samaka#2511 Thanks for the tip. There are indeed teeny tiny green gems in the corners of campaign boxes with completed tasks.

Clearly too subtle for the majority of us to have noticed.

Further, the green on gold looks suspiciously to me like a contrast that is invisible to most colour blind folks.

samaka · March 2017

I remember the build notes a patch or two after the mod where the Campaign Window was updated mentioned that there was a change to indicate which campaigns had completed tasks... itty bitty green gems weren't what I was expecting either!

@midnightlight#2361 - In the campaign window rework please make campaigns with completed tasks be considerably more noticable? Thanks!

tizzock · March 2017

i got tabbed out by a pop up during a refine, and now my demogorgon belt is gone! no trace whatsoever

maci4life · March 2017

I agree with pretty much everything said above. to add....

1. Professions window - Have a simple collect all button option. At 9 slots opened, that's 18 clicks total each toon every day.
2. quests window - Its one big mess of quests to do. Barely any organization. Is it too hard to have a quests tab or a filter option for each location?
3. main screen missions display ( right hand side ) - How about having only the quests of that location display while you're in that specific location. everything else is in the quests window.
4. refinement - How about an option to hold the shift key and add multiple items at once? refining weapons/belt/necklace is super tedious when you have to add each item individually over and over again for a reward refinement of 100 rp or 200 rp each for the greens. Level 70 green items are pretty much irrelevant except for being used as refinement, so please improve the process.

thanks

What about some QoL improvements?

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