test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Feedback after 2 years and 500£ spent
cokefd
Member Posts: 8 Arc User
I thought about providing some feedback after some time and money spent on the game, with the hopes of helping it make better.
Personally, I like RPG games, and I understand that even if it is a free to play game, needs to be funded to support the development and running costs of the infrastructure that supports it.
In general, I enjoy the game, that is why I play it, however, I would like to share some personal experiences with it, and some frustration points.
I have 8 characters, one of each class, however I only play 4, as they have the play styles that I like, being OP, DC, GWF and SW, and I have them to item levels from 16.8k to 15.5k, meaning that I play and nurture them individually.
About where to spend money on the game:
I spend money on it with the means of funding it, and then I decide what to buy from the ZEN market, however, most of the items are not really appealing or are ways overpriced.
I bought VIP, some mounts as they are claimable to all the characters on the account, the dragonborn pack as it provides a bag for each character, some SKT completion as I will never grind that campaign again even with signet, and then I was left with ZEN that was deemed to be spent, so I bought keys and preservation wards to which experience I will share later.
I bought 20 character slots with the idea of creating an "alt army", but just invoking and doing professions in 8 is tedious enough, so, I am not doing that "chore". Is a game and supposed to be enjoyable, not a "chore".
Point being, there are not a lot of appealing items on the ZEN store, companions, packs and items I believe are ways overpriced for being virtual goods. I don't want to change ZEN for AD, but more on that later.
About the RNG, preservation wards and lockboxes:
With the preservation wards bought in the ZEN store, I thought was a good idea to level up my enchants. Seems like leveling up enchants is a mistake, as it usually works cheaper to buy them out of the auction house than doing it on your own.
To me, as personal opinion, seems that sometimes it even enters in some "cooldown" mode to which no matter how many you spend, it will fail. I tested this multiple times going from rank 8 to rank 9 where on each occurrence more than 50 wards were spent.
I am not saying that the RNG is dishonest if you try a million times, but the deviation from being honest in a small sample seems to be huge.
I bought about 300 keys, to which I had no luck in getting a legendary mount, that combined with the keys form VIP are more than 700, meaning that in 700+ dice throws I didn't get a legendary mount. Again, I am not saying that is dishonest in a million throws, but it seems to not be in my favor.
For this 2 reasons, now the leftover ZEN is just spent on wards and they are sold in the AH, as is more profitable to change AD in this way rather than the ZAX, which does not help with the backlog.
About alt friendliness:
Is good that now exists the "signet of patronage", however, it should be available on the last campaign as well. If you already went through the whole campaign with one character, becomes a "chore" to go through with alt characters. Having the patronage as soon as you complete it with one character, and creating the additional currency needed for it should be enough to help your alts.
Items are bound to character, and even if you could use them in an alt after they have been replaced, because of the BtC, are deemed useless, and even refinement points spent on artifacts now should be destroyed.
One of the ways to see it is that you can have a "pool" of resources, and the adventurer that you choose to play is able to wear them. This could apply to companions, enchants, runestones, artifacts ...
About new player friendliness:
I see a lot of new players that hit level 70, go to Barovia for the gear, and then ... what?
Some guides about the order in which doing the campaigns, what can be done together and some more guidance about statistics would be helpful.
I seem to find more information about statistics, behaviors, what works with what, character builds and so on outside of any Neverwinter related sofware/page than in the game help/forums. I am not afraid of maths, but just seems to not be there.
This causes a lot of frustration and seems to be one of the reasons for a lot of people to quit the game.
About random queues:
I like dungeons, and is where I spend most of my time. Not because of the AD income, but dungeons is one of the things that most attracts me to MMORPG games.
Now seems like the gap between item levels grows a lot. You can easily find a 18k and a 12k in a RAQ. The problem with it usually is that the "elitist" does not want to play with low item level players. This causes a toxic atmosphere and waste of time.
Would be nice if the selection would get players on the same average, would save a lot of toxicity and elitism on the game.
About dungeons in general:
I like RAQ because at least the bosses have some interesting mechanics, just not go and do damage. CR will be nice once the bugs are fixed. TONG and CODG I am already tired of them.
I would like to see more interesting mechanics. I don't think that bigger monsters or more life would be the place to go, I believe that different mechanics for bosses that would cause it to success if you follow them, or fail if you don't follow should be the way to go. Same could apply to normal mobs in open areas, they could have different mechanics that might need some control powers/shadow/block to survive them.
Mechanics of bosses are not very visible (they are on the journal), and causes a lot of frustration to new and elite players when they fon't know or others don't follow (because they don't know).
About professions:
I tried to start mastercraft alchemy before the redesign, however, I didn't knew the importance of the Forgehammer of Gond. I spent more than 20 million and got no luck creating the MW1, but the RNG is not in my favor.
The new system makes a little bit better to start the masterwork professions, so, thanks for that.
On the other side, the commission costs are just ridiculous, and unsustainable.
I understand that you don't want to create a lot from nothing like the old system, however, this is limited to 3 gathering and 3 crafting tasks.
Even the tasks that you could get some benefit in gold, such benefit is days away from granting enough to create something like gold crates or high level items.
I like it, I am excited about where it can go, but right now, the numbers doesn't match for me.
Just want to finish saying congratulations for the game, and I am looking forward to see where it goes next.
Personally, I like RPG games, and I understand that even if it is a free to play game, needs to be funded to support the development and running costs of the infrastructure that supports it.
In general, I enjoy the game, that is why I play it, however, I would like to share some personal experiences with it, and some frustration points.
I have 8 characters, one of each class, however I only play 4, as they have the play styles that I like, being OP, DC, GWF and SW, and I have them to item levels from 16.8k to 15.5k, meaning that I play and nurture them individually.
About where to spend money on the game:
I spend money on it with the means of funding it, and then I decide what to buy from the ZEN market, however, most of the items are not really appealing or are ways overpriced.
I bought VIP, some mounts as they are claimable to all the characters on the account, the dragonborn pack as it provides a bag for each character, some SKT completion as I will never grind that campaign again even with signet, and then I was left with ZEN that was deemed to be spent, so I bought keys and preservation wards to which experience I will share later.
I bought 20 character slots with the idea of creating an "alt army", but just invoking and doing professions in 8 is tedious enough, so, I am not doing that "chore". Is a game and supposed to be enjoyable, not a "chore".
Point being, there are not a lot of appealing items on the ZEN store, companions, packs and items I believe are ways overpriced for being virtual goods. I don't want to change ZEN for AD, but more on that later.
About the RNG, preservation wards and lockboxes:
With the preservation wards bought in the ZEN store, I thought was a good idea to level up my enchants. Seems like leveling up enchants is a mistake, as it usually works cheaper to buy them out of the auction house than doing it on your own.
To me, as personal opinion, seems that sometimes it even enters in some "cooldown" mode to which no matter how many you spend, it will fail. I tested this multiple times going from rank 8 to rank 9 where on each occurrence more than 50 wards were spent.
I am not saying that the RNG is dishonest if you try a million times, but the deviation from being honest in a small sample seems to be huge.
I bought about 300 keys, to which I had no luck in getting a legendary mount, that combined with the keys form VIP are more than 700, meaning that in 700+ dice throws I didn't get a legendary mount. Again, I am not saying that is dishonest in a million throws, but it seems to not be in my favor.
For this 2 reasons, now the leftover ZEN is just spent on wards and they are sold in the AH, as is more profitable to change AD in this way rather than the ZAX, which does not help with the backlog.
About alt friendliness:
Is good that now exists the "signet of patronage", however, it should be available on the last campaign as well. If you already went through the whole campaign with one character, becomes a "chore" to go through with alt characters. Having the patronage as soon as you complete it with one character, and creating the additional currency needed for it should be enough to help your alts.
Items are bound to character, and even if you could use them in an alt after they have been replaced, because of the BtC, are deemed useless, and even refinement points spent on artifacts now should be destroyed.
One of the ways to see it is that you can have a "pool" of resources, and the adventurer that you choose to play is able to wear them. This could apply to companions, enchants, runestones, artifacts ...
About new player friendliness:
I see a lot of new players that hit level 70, go to Barovia for the gear, and then ... what?
Some guides about the order in which doing the campaigns, what can be done together and some more guidance about statistics would be helpful.
I seem to find more information about statistics, behaviors, what works with what, character builds and so on outside of any Neverwinter related sofware/page than in the game help/forums. I am not afraid of maths, but just seems to not be there.
This causes a lot of frustration and seems to be one of the reasons for a lot of people to quit the game.
About random queues:
I like dungeons, and is where I spend most of my time. Not because of the AD income, but dungeons is one of the things that most attracts me to MMORPG games.
Now seems like the gap between item levels grows a lot. You can easily find a 18k and a 12k in a RAQ. The problem with it usually is that the "elitist" does not want to play with low item level players. This causes a toxic atmosphere and waste of time.
Would be nice if the selection would get players on the same average, would save a lot of toxicity and elitism on the game.
About dungeons in general:
I like RAQ because at least the bosses have some interesting mechanics, just not go and do damage. CR will be nice once the bugs are fixed. TONG and CODG I am already tired of them.
I would like to see more interesting mechanics. I don't think that bigger monsters or more life would be the place to go, I believe that different mechanics for bosses that would cause it to success if you follow them, or fail if you don't follow should be the way to go. Same could apply to normal mobs in open areas, they could have different mechanics that might need some control powers/shadow/block to survive them.
Mechanics of bosses are not very visible (they are on the journal), and causes a lot of frustration to new and elite players when they fon't know or others don't follow (because they don't know).
About professions:
I tried to start mastercraft alchemy before the redesign, however, I didn't knew the importance of the Forgehammer of Gond. I spent more than 20 million and got no luck creating the MW1, but the RNG is not in my favor.
The new system makes a little bit better to start the masterwork professions, so, thanks for that.
On the other side, the commission costs are just ridiculous, and unsustainable.
I understand that you don't want to create a lot from nothing like the old system, however, this is limited to 3 gathering and 3 crafting tasks.
Even the tasks that you could get some benefit in gold, such benefit is days away from granting enough to create something like gold crates or high level items.
I like it, I am excited about where it can go, but right now, the numbers doesn't match for me.
Just want to finish saying congratulations for the game, and I am looking forward to see where it goes next.
1
Comments
Bought preservation wards again, and thought about giving another chance to the RNG
Refining an Azure enchantment from 12 to 13, with what is supposed to be a 3% chance, I just spent 200 preservation wards and still does not update.
Needs to be thought the success rate and the deviation from it, to compensate a rewarding vs frustrating experience.
Frustrating experience. Is not that I was refining a lot of them. Just the first and unique one after getting the wards.
Back to the thinking of not refining.
Also keep in mind the odds mechanism they use is either messed up or is set to be dishonest. The other day I had something that was 30% and I gave up have 40 preservation stones! At 30% that is nearly a one in three chance. The odds of me not getting it in 40 tries is stoopid high. This has happened to me several times and each time I log out an back in and nearly always get in the first time, sometimes 2nd. So I think you are correct in that sometimes whatever is supposed to be doing the RNG gets stuck. I just hope it's not by design.
I will also often get skill nodes that are supposed to 75% in my favour that takes ten kits to open. It's crazy.
Some great points, well made, by the original poster. Some good insight there.
Agreed there is nothing in the Zen store worth having.
I am a new player. Ive been playing Neverwinter for a bit over an hour. However I am not a new gamer, I have been playing computer games since the mid 80's or so. Initially I got some nice free stuff from humble bundle, and a invitation from an older player wo has a life schedule diametrically opposed to mine so we wont likely meet in game. I am also dyslexic, so forgive the grammar. It seems that I am too new to make a new thread so I am tacking my feedback onto this one as a counterpoint to the feedback of an older denizen.
Here are some candid thoughts and feedback from a new but potential neverwinter Denizen
TL;DR : Please improve your initial user information, make the prices/costs more clear, and provide more time to consider an initial purchase. Not everyone has young eyes, please make it more clear how to increase text/ui size. The ui/ux is confusing how do I Access some of the sections especially messages that disappear rapidly? so far its fun, once I ignore the sales pitches and can now read what is going on.
1) Initially on login there is allot of store related items, and some feeling of pressure to make an initial purchase. none of which is clearly explained and none of which can be properly reviewed.. If you try to access the details on allot of this to have a look around you're rather bluntly told to wait until level 5 AND until you cleared Blackwater soothing or other. that is it, tuff go AWAY kid don't give us your money but get exited to buy something later.
I am level 6, I still have no idea how much in USD your currency costs and cant find the answer until I complete this "Blackwater" area. Nor can I find out if there is monthly access type fee I can pay like ESO or Wizards 101 has. That might be "VIP" but you know its all rather unclear as I cant tell how much virtual currency costs. what is clear to me is that you do not want to talk about money until later but you want me to buy something now without telling me what it will cost me . I suppose this kind of mind game works on some folks but its a huge turn off to an adult.
2) At level 5 I got a coupon for 25% off a companion but I had 56m to complete "Blackwater" to use it and guess what? I am 50 I do not like tight deadlines outside of work or learning environments. The more you try to rush me, the more likely I am to go elsewhere. at my current pace I have 11m left before your coupon expires and no direct clue if that is enough time to use the coupon you want me to use before the coupon expires. That is not a way to encourage me to spend the usual USD15 or so I would consider for a monthly mmo. so I guess no companion now that I feel they will be 25% higher then the price I could not pay? perhaps it is just a bug and you intended to give me a day to review that purchase?
3) I have always worn glasses and at 1080 resolution the text is too small to read. it took some casting about in the options screen to find there was no way to increase text size but I did find the option to increase the ui size. As part of the tutorial you may want to provide an option to adjust text or ui scale especially to those poor souls who might try to play at 4k?
4) on the right I keep seeing things like "15m PVP something" and in the center of the screen items popup about folks opening loot boxes. So far the tutorial has not indicated how to access these sections and review what poped up and disappeared too quickly. I did finally figure out how to access the quest list and set my active quest but the tutorial never made it clear how I could do that. I do suggest the initial tutorial take a minute to discuss the screen icons , how to access logs etc.
5) clearly you can chat with others, folks keep inviting to groups. pity I cant do anything but accept or decline. I bet there is way to find out who sent the invite and chat with them but guess what the tutorial has not covered? That's right, how do you chat with others? its not a big thing Ill look for the option later, but I am supposed to hit slash maybe?
So there you have a small gripe list from playing your game HTH
https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1222015/pc-combating-gold-spammers/p1
2> The coupons are pretty common. There is no reason to worry over one and at any rate, we are in the middle of the Black Friday sale which makes the coupons irrelevant. (they don't stack with the sale and the sale price is greater)
4> The event trackers cycle and mostly pertain to level 70 characters. There is plenty of time to learn what they mean but PVP is queued content. Hit 'K' and the queue menu will pop up. You can see the various things that you can try out on the right. Marauders and Dragonflight are guild events. You'll need to find a guild to do those and both are sort of outdated. Can't remember what any other events might be.
5> When you complete the steps detailed in the link above, you will be able to to chat by either clicking on the chat window or by hitting the Enter key. If someone has PM'd you, you can quickly start a reply by hitting Backspace.